Shaitan
by csiphile
Summary: CROSSOVER: NCIS and SVU cross paths when a serial rapistmurderer of female naval officers lands in New York City. (slight KG, EO) Please see authors notes for a more complete description. COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

Rating: PG13

Category: NCIS/SVU crossover. Implied NCIS romance (K/G) and not so implied SVU ship (E/O). Light romance/casefile/drama/what ever you want to call it.

Summary: NCIS and SVU cross paths when a serial rapist/murder of female naval officers lands in New York City.

AN1: This was actually a pretty easy fic, the shows mesh rather well together, well at least in my world. There are so many similarities its unreal, you'll see them. I'm going to assume for now that everyone here is at least somewhat aware of both NCIS and SVU shows…at least the premise of each. If your confused, please let me know and Ill do a more comprehensive AN at the beginning of the next chapter to clear any confusion. This chapter is ALL SVU, but the rest of the fic is pretty balanced between the two shows. Please note: Small references to my SVU fic Genesis in here, no need to read though, you can probably catch on pretty quick. Just keep in mind E/O are in a ship….of sorts. Its explained later, I promise.

AN2: Big, HUGE thanks to my wonder beta and support, kukrae. She was there when the idea formed and listened ever so patiently while I fleshed it out. And Kat, who took time to beta the first couple chapters….thank you.

Help me…help you. Leave a review, it makes a writers day. Even an "it's great!" puts a smile on my face, though more wordy criticism is appreciated. Flames however, will be ignored. Enough of my yammering….onto the fic….

Chapter 1: Long Night

NYC – 7th Ave

11 pm

Elliot Stabler turned the corner onto Seventh and audibly sighed. Behind the flashing lights of the street cops and ambulance that had been first on scene, gathered quite a horde of onlookers. The early hour had practically guaranteed a large crowd would gather around the scene as no one was in bed just yet.  Everyone was anxious to get a look at what had happened in their neighborhood; what atrocity had occurred now.

Slowing as he approached the scene, Elliot flashed his badge and stated, "SVU" to the perimeter cop. He was quickly waved through and he parked next to the ambulance, closest to the group of people. Some were in their pajamas with a coat thrown over them, others were fully dressed as if they had been walking by and stopped to see the action.

Getting out, he surveyed the people quickly before heading toward the crime scene.  He said hello to a few familiar cops on his way in. He easily found his partner, predictably already there, hunched over a body, her small frame blocking most of his view. She was dressed similar to him: jeans, comfortable shoes, and her favorite black zip up hoodie over what was probably a t-shirt. It was a warm night in New York for the last week of September for which Elliot was grateful. There was nothing worse than finding a dead body, unless it was below zero and he was freezing his nuts off.

He approached her slowly, taking in the scene around him. His partner and the body were in an alley just off 7th, not well lit, but it wasn't the darkest he'd seen. What surprised Elliot the most was that the vic was practically on the street.  Typically they find bodies father into the alley, to avoid detection, but not this one…this one was maybe five feet from the sidewalk. Seventh was a well-traveled street, with several clubs lining the west side a few hundred yards north of their location. This one thing told Elliot their perp wanted the body to be found. For what reason, though, he didn't know.

Just as he walked around her right side, Olivia pointed and spoke to him, without even looking up. He shook his head mentally; they knew each other so well.

"What do you make of that?"

Elliot hitched up his pants and squatted next to the body - which was laid out neatly on the cold ground with her arms tucked at her sides, as if sleeping - narrowing his eyes slightly. She was in bad shape, naked except for a jacket that has been placed backward on the body, covering her from breasts to pubic area. What skin Elliot could see had been brutalized, bruises covered her legs, arms and neck, blood matted the hair at her temple - probably where she had been hit - and right over the breastbone it looked like someone had carved into her skin, the cut disappearing under the coat.

"It looks like the perp marked her somehow."

Olivia tilted her head at him and nodded. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, but there's a lot of dried blood so it's hard to tell. Warner will have to get a better look."

He nodded and they stand. "What else we got?"

She looked at her notepad and sighed, "Not much, she's got no ID. White female, early 30s. Fin, Munch and some cops are canvassing for witnesses. They saved the girls who found her for us." At that she pointed back in the direction he had come to the three young women, all dressed to go out clubbing.

"Let's go," he said and placed a hand on her lower back as they walked.

Without discussion Olivia introduced herself and Elliot.  They had found over years of partnership that when dealing with witnesses, especially young ones, it was frequently less intimidating when Olivia started questioning. Despite her tall stature and projection of authority, she seemed to change just enough to make them feel at ease.

"Can you tell me what happened?" she asked in a soft voice.

The oldest of the girls, who identified herself as Leah, looked at her friends and then back at Olivia before speaking. Apparently the three had elected her the talker, they all looked a bit shaky, with the other two gripping each other's hands.

"We were walking to Club Tantric, we….we were celebrating Jessi's 21st birthday," Leah stated.

"Are you students?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah…at NYU. So we were walking past the alley…and…Amy thought she saw something. We turned to see what she was looking at…and that's when we saw….her. And the blood. We called 911 right away."

Elliot could practically see the blood drain from Leah's face at the memory.

"You did the right thing," Olivia stated.  "Did you guys see anyone suspicious coming out of the alley before you looked in? Or anywhere in the area?"

The Leah again turned to her friends before responding, "No…but we weren't really paying attention. We were enjoying the weather."

Olivia gave a glance to the other two, "Is this right?  Do you remember anything else?"

"No…I wasn't paying attention really," said one.

"Same," replied the other

All three girls looked guilty that they weren't able to help and Olivia quickly concluded the interview with reassurances.  She handed each girl her card in case they remembered anything else.

Walking back, they met up with Fin and Munch who were taking a break from canvassing for the minute. The two men reported no one saw anything.

Elliot looked exasperated at her, "It's 10 at night, and no one saw or heard a woman being murdered?"

"Apparently not."  She looked in the direction of the body, "Warner's here, let's see what she says."

The group separated, with Munch and Fin returning to their canvassing.

"Doc," Elliot said at they approach. "Got anything?"

Melinda looked up at them before standing. "Well, she wasn't killed here, not enough fluids. Looks like she's been dead about four hours. It's hard to tell without cleaning her up, but by process of elimination and the bruises on her neck, I'd say she was strangled. But you didn't hear that until autopsy."

The Elliot and Olivia looked at each other. "It's a dump job," he said. "No wonder no one heard anything."

"Well, he did some damage.  I'll have to take X-rays to determine the full extent, but she was beaten pretty badly, probably pre-mortem. As for that mark in her chest, I don't know yet."

"Detectives!" one of the CSU guys called out, cutting off Warner.

"I'll catch you guys back at the morgue in the morning," she said, letting them go. They both nodded and walked over to Dante, the CSU agent.

"What's up?" Elliot asked.

"You might find this interesting," he said, holding up the jacket that had been covering the woman. Carefully he turned it around, revealing a row of ribbons on the right side and on the left a name engraved on small silver plaque: Williams.

"She's military," Olivia said, staring at the jacket.

"Could be a Salvation Army coat, Liv."

Snapping on a glove she pulled out of her pocket, Olivia touched the ribbons, getting a better look. "I don't think so, El. This is recently dry cleaned, there is almost no wear on it. And how many places sell military jackets with the ribbons and name tag still attached?"

Pursing his lips he also leaned towards the coat, using the scant illumination from the streetlamp to see it. Wracking his brain he stared at the coat intently.  "I think it's Marine issue.  She was a…Lieutenant Colonel, maybe."

"This just became high priority, didn't it?" Olivia asked.

He looked at her and nodded. "You bet your sweet ass it did. I bet Warner doesn't get to go home tonight. I'll call Cragen."

Anything involving military personnel lately was considered high priority. Especially the murder of an officer. The government wanted to know every detail of a suspicious military death, because these days you just never knew what might be behind it.

She nodded and they headed to their cars to drive back to the station.  It was going to be a long night.

SVU Squadroom

2 AM

Olivia rested her head in one hand, watching the computer monitor sideways like it would give her the answers to all the questions in the universe. Sadly, it wasn't even giving her the rest of the woman's name.

Suddenly she smelled something, something good. Lifting her head and pausing the pictures flying past her screen, she spied her partner walking through the double doors in front of her desk, carrying two cups of coffee.

Gratefully she took the one he offered and took a long sip, not caring that the fluid burned a little going down. At least it woke her up a little bit.

"Thank you."

Elliot had gone to a 24-hour coffee place down the block. Neither was willing to make the crap that passed for coffee in the house.

"Welcome. How's it going?"

"Slowly. There are an awful lot of women in the military with the last name Williams."

"Well, Munch and Fin gave up their canvass, so they'll be back in the morning. The 'good' news is that Warner was informed not to leave without doing an autopsy. And Cragen wants us to wait."

"We aren't getting any sleep tonight…are we?" she asked, though it was more a statement than a real question.

"Nope. Better drink up," he smiled at her.

With that she raised her coffee cup at him and took another large gulp, then turned back to the monitor. She had run the last name on the coat through the military database, all of it since Elliot wasn't sure of the rank or branch, coming up with nearly 200 caucasian females with the same name. _This could take all night,_ she mused.

Just as Elliot was sitting in his chair, he was interrupted by both his partner sitting up straight and motioning for him and the ringing of his phone. Quickly he grabbed his cell and got up to stand behind Olivia as he answered, "Stabler. Uh huh…yep. We'll be right over. Thanks."

Snapping the phone shut he leaned over Olivia, looking at the picture she had pulled up on the screen.  It was their dead Marine, for sure now, in her military uniform. The name "Lt. Col. Allison Williams" under the picture.  "We have a name," he says. "And Warner has an autopsy. Let's go."

Swiftly they gathered their things and headed out the door.

ME's Office

2:30 AM

Just as they came in Melinda was grabbing X-rays and walking back into the autopsy room. She greeted them with a smile, "Well, when I said I'd see you in the morning, I didn't quite mean this early."

"Us either," Elliot muttered. "That was a fast autopsy."

"My boss's boss called and wanted it done yesterday, so…here we are."

"Well, then, what do we have?" Olivia said, her voice indicating the coffee had taken hold and was keeping her awake.

"She was strangled, bruises indicate by a right-handed person," she demonstrated on the body using her own hand. "Multiple contusions to the head, shoulders and back. There is a small pin prick in the neck, probably injected with something. I've sent blood work to tox."

She started walking as she talked, pointing at Lt Williams' body as she went. "The rest of her body is a mess. Bruises cover at least 60%; she has two cracked ribs, a fractured ulna possibly from fighting back, and several minor lacerations on her legs. She was raped before death, no fluids, he used a condom. I didn't find any errant hairs, but I'll double check."

Pausing, Melinda walked back up to the chest area. "This cut is curious. It looks to be made by a small knife, maybe 6 inches in length, I'll have a better idea of type of blade in the morning. I took a picture and sent it to CSU for comparison."

Both the detectives leaned in to get a closer look at the mark. It was circular and small, maybe three inches in diameter. Inside the circle was an X.

"Great, anything else?" Olivia asked in a distracted voice, which Elliot noticed.

"Well, yeah. When I finished the autopsy I realized I recognized the cut from somewhere."

Both Elliot and Olivia looked at her. "Seriously?" he asked.

Walking into her office, the two detectives followed as she striped off her gloves and pulled a notice off her bulletin board.

"Yeah. A couple weeks ago I received this from a coroner I used to work with, he's with NCIS now. Recognize the photo?"

Holding the flyer, Elliot leaned into Olivia so she could also read it. In large type it informed all coroners to be on the lookout for bodies of female military officers with the pictured carving in their chest. Under the bold font was a clear picture of the markings on Lt Col Williams.

Olivia looked at the picture then glanced back at the body, "It's the same."

"Yeah, I called the tipline. NCIS is being notified."

"Great," Elliot said just as his phone rang. He stepped back from the women and answered the call.  "Stabler….yes, Captain, that's where we are. No we….yes, sir. Yep….see you in the morning, Cap."

He returned and looked at his partner. "That was Cragen, NCIS will be here in the morning. Apparently this is a serial killer."

tbc……………………..don't forget to leave a review. Thanks!


	2. And It Only Gets Worse

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

Disclaimer: I don't own them…but ohhhhh if I did. SVU belongs to Dick Wolf/Paramount/NBS, NCIS belongs to Donald Bellasario/CBS/whoever, no infringement is intended and I am making no money on this. I wish…I wouldn't need my real job.

AN1: I will be updating weekly on Tuesday nights, right after NCIS is on…it's a nice reminder for me to do it. Otherwise, my posting would be rather random, and then this way you guys have something to look forward to….at least I hope. Also, any stupid errors (like ribbons and name plates in the wrong place) are all mine, though I hope there aren't too many of them.

AN2: Now our NCIS buddies make an appearance. Someone asked what NCIS was, it's a CBS show on at 8 pm on Tuesdays (you really should watch, it rocks!) the short version is it's about naval investigators who investigate crimes in all branches of the military. There are three of them, Gibbs is the man in charge, Tony has been there for 2 years, former cop, and Kate who was a secret service agent but was recruited by Gibbs in the first ep. I think I explain their characters pretty well, but if any non-NCIS viewers are confused, just let me know and Ill try and clear any confusion up.

AN3: Thank you, thank you for the reviews, I SO appreciate it! Raindrop, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought this was a good idea for a crossover, and thanks for letting me run with it! Goodness, you guys are good; you'll see the similarities between the characters brought out. It was rather fun to actually realize how much the two shows have in common.

Chapter 2: And It Only Gets Worse

Washington DC

3 AM

His phone rang twice on the night table before he rolled over and picked it up with a harsh "Gibbs." He'd had a long couple weeks and was hoping for a full night's sleep. They all were, but Gibbs has a feeling that a 3 AM phone call meant no one was going to get it.

Quickly he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and sat up, turning on the light and grabbing the pen and paper he kept next to the phone. He scribbled some notes down, giving an occasional "Uh huh" to the person on the other end.

"Yep…thanks."  Sighing he closed the phone and stretched his tired muscles, he had only gotten to bed…he squinted at the clock…four hours ago. Which for the past three weeks was probably the most sleep he had gotten at one time.

Yawning, he reopened the phone and made three calls. Tony first. Gibbs knew that the younger agent would take the longest to get moving. He made the mistake only once of calling Kate first, quickly learning that the female agent had the admirable ability to get up, dressed and be out the door in half the time as Tony. Sighing, he relayed the information he had as quickly as possible, reminding Tony they would leave without him. Next he called Kate.

"Todd," she answered in a pretty clear tone, no sleepiness evident. Gibbs was surprised, they have been working almost non-stop the past week, he figured she would be sleeping.

"Kate, suit up, we have another one."

"Jesus, Gibbs," she muttered.

"I know," he said softly. Kate seemed to have taken the case to heart, and it worried him. "We have a 6 AM out of Reagan to New York; meet you at the usual place in an hour."

He heard her let out a long breath. "Yeah, ok…ok," she replied distantly.

"Kate…," he started, but was unsure what to say to reassure her.

"One hour, Gibbs. I'll be there," she said and hung up the phone, solving the problem for him.

"Dammit, Kate." He muttered as he punched speed dial four.

"Dr Mallard." This time the voice was thick with sleep, Ducky's accent even heavier than usual.

"Ducky, it's Gibbs."

"Jethro. What time is it?"

Suddenly it occurred to him that Kate didn't ask the time, but Ducky and Tony both had. She had been wide-awake when he called. Cursing silently, he scrubbed his hands across his face; she was going to be the death of him one day.

"It's three, Duck. We have another one."

"Ohhh, Jethro. Where?"

"New York. A Doc Warner called it in."

"Ohhh yes. Melinda, lovely woman."

"You're on standby if we need you. Can you let Abby know also in the morning?"

"No problem."

"Thanks. Night, Duck."

"Good night."

It didn't take Gibbs long to take a shower, make a cup of coffee and grab his overnight bag from the bedroom. The overnight bag that had only just been unpacked and repacked the day before after their return from Detroit earlier in the week. He had been sure that their suspect was done; it had been 5 days since the last murder. Giving his house a quick once over, Gibbs locked the door behind him, wondering, not for the first time in recent weeks, when he would be back.

After parking in long term at Reagan, he made his way to the Northwest counter to find Kate standing there. She was staring off into space, her overnight bag on the ground between her legs. She was dressed casually in jeans, a long-sleeved green shirt and tennis shoes, carrying a lightweight camel-colored coat, her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, the bangs hanging slightly in her face.

He approached her, and she finally turned to him, giving him a small smile as he reached her.

"Morning," she said.

"Not really," he replied and noticed the black circles under her eyes, that she had tried, rather unsuccessfully, to cover with make-up.

She just nodded silently, looking down at the floor. An uncomfortable silence stretched as they waited for Tony to arrive.

"Detroit to New York, not much of a leap. But its been 5 days…" she said

"Yeah," Gibbs sighed and took another drink of his coffee, staring at her over the rim.

She tilted her head at him, "What?"

"Why weren't you sleeping when I called?" When she paused before answering, he continued, "And don't tell me you were, cause I know better."

She had the grace to look guilty. "I…"

Her reply was cut off by Tony hollering Gibbs' name across the terminal. Gibbs gave her his best 'we will discuss this later' expression before turning to the younger man and chastising him for being late.

Tony gave him a perplexed expression and looked at his watch, "I'm not, boss. I'm five minutes early."

"Whatever. Let's go," he barked and they all walked to the ticket counter, Kate lagging behind some.

Because of the early hour on a Saturday, the terminal was relatively empty and they got through security and onto the plane with no problems. They hadn't been assigned seats since the plane was only half booked and the flight attendant told them to sit wherever they wanted. They all walked to the row in front of the mid-plane exit, where there was a little extra leg room and the seats reclined. Kate went first, sitting by the window on one side of the plane, while Tony had, predictably, sat in the window seat across from her.

Easily Gibbs seized the opportunity, Tony would sleep most of the hour flight, so he slid into the aisle seat near Kate, leaving a seat between them. She merely gave him a look before turning back to the window, watching the sun start to peek over the horizon.

Gibbs turned and looked at Tony, who had quickly made himself comfortable and was starting to drift back into sleep. Buckling his belt, he sat back and drifted off himself as they took off. The next thing he became aware of was the feeling of someone reaching across his body, invading his personal space. Snapping his eyes open he saw the flight attendant's hand pulling back over him. Obviously she had been handing something to Kate.

Blinking a few times he manages to croak out, "coffee," before the flight attendant got too far. He turned to look at Kate, who was sitting in her seat, one foot tucked under the other, a file open in front of her, a bottle of water in one hand and pencil in the other.

Glancing at Tony, he saw the agent was still sleeping, curled against the window. "Kate, what are you doing?" he asked and leaned toward her slightly.

"Reading," she said with a 'what does it look like' tone, never turning to look at him.

"No kidding," he sassed back and was rewarded with a small smile.

"I'm just going over the files, there has to be a connection between these women besides being all Marines."

"Find anything?" he asked as a cup of coffee was handed to him. "Thanks."

"Not yet, but I'm trying." She continued to stare intently at the page in front of her, nibbling on the eraser of the pencil.

"Is that what you were doing when I called instead of sleeping like I ordered you to?" He gave her his best stern look, there is nothing Gibbs hated more then when his agents defied an order. Especially an order he gave them for their own good.

Now she looked at him, her expression indescribable. "Gibbs, you can't tell me when to sleep."

"Oh, you bet your ass I can. When you're so exhausted you aren't thinking straight, you're no good to me or anyone. When you're so tired your reflexes are slow, that puts me and Tony in jeopardy. And it puts yourself in even more danger." His voice had started strong, but by the end of his speech, it was softer as he considers his own words.

She sighed and put her head back on the head rest. "Gibbs…we should have this guy by now. If I hadn't…."

"Kate, it doesn't matter."

"Yes! It does matter. If I hadn't let him get away, two women would still be alive." She turned her body toward him.

"Kate, no one blames you. It wasn't just you in that alley. It was me and Dinozzo, too," he tried to reassure her.

"You didn't screw up," she hissed.

"You didn't, Kate. It was ALL our jobs. Look, you're tired, we all are. Stop blaming yourself, no one else does."

She closed her eyes and nodded slowly. She might accept his words, but Gibbs knew it wouldn't change anything, she would kill herself trying to find this guy now. Without a word he stretched across her, grabbing the window shade and pulling it down.

"Gibbs! What are you doing?"

He looked at his watch and then at her, "We have thirty minutes before we land." He scooped up the file and closed it, putting it between them. "You _are_ going to get some sleep." Standing, he opened the overhead bin, grabbing a blanket and pillow.

"Gibbs…"

"This is non-negotiable, Kate." He handed her the items. "Close your eyes and at least try."

She gave him a nasty look but untucked her foot and reclined, putting the barely there pillow under her head and the itchy blanket over her body. She curled toward him and said, "You're a bastard."

"Yeah, I've heard that before. Go to sleep," he admonished. "Or at least close your eyes and pretend."

She made a "hrumph" noise but closed her eyes, a few minutes later her breathing slowed and he knew she was sleeping. Sighing, he stared at the top of her head, determined not to fall asleep himself, his need to watch over her overriding the tiredness in his bones.

SVU

9 AM

Elliot looked across the desk at his partner. After they had ID'd the victim and found out NCIS was on its way, they had knocked off for the night, since there was literally nothing they could do but wait.

She was still recovering from her stabbing three months ago. Olivia was never one to admit to not being 100%, but Elliot could see it sometimes. She still got short of breath on occasion, and when she stretched wrong he could see the discomfort flit over her face. Though, all in all, she had been a pretty good patient, her doctors were impressed with her recovery and put her back on active duty three weeks ago.

Their relationship has been put on hold, however, until his divorce was finalized. Despite the fact that it had been amicable so far, Kathy was asking for nothing but joint custody of the twins and the house. Elliot had agreed, moved out, and all that was left was the paperwork. Even the kids had taken it well, with the exception of the occasional outburst. Despite the ease with which they are dissolving a nearly 20 year relationship, Elliot didn't want to rub it in her, or the kids, faces, his relationship with Olivia. So he and Liv had agreed to put it all on hold - for now.

"Where the hell are they? Even the FBI doesn't take this long."

Olivia raised an eyebrow at him, "What? You're excited to hand the case over to a bunch of overworked, detective rejects?"

Now its his turn to raise an eyebrow. "Wow, Liv. Repressing some anger I see. I was just commenting on their lateness."

She sighed and waved her hand, "Sorry, sorry. I'm just anxious, we've never held onto a case so long. Our killer could be halfway to Canada by now."

"Cragen told us to wait. We wait."

"I know. It's just…"

Just then three tired looking strangers appeared outside the doorway. Elliot nodded and Olivia turned to look herself.

Two men and one woman stood talking to Cragen who was shaking hands and nodding. Elliot couldn't hear them speak through the closed door, but he immediately picked out the leader, the older man with graying hair, he had an air of authority around him. Elliot also felt something familiar about him, a way of standing…something. Pursing his lips he turned his attention to the other agents. The brunette was cute and stood beside the older man, almost his equal, but not quite, the younger man standing slightly behind the other two, mostly looking tired.

Elliot quit analyzing the trio as they walked through the doors, and he and Olivia stood, coming around the desks to advance on the visitors.

"Elliot, Olivia, Special Agents Jethro Gibbs, Kate Todd and Anthony DiNozzo. They are from NCIS." Turning his head he addressed the NCIS agents, "Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. Our other two detectives are out canvassing and will be back later."

A quick round of hellos was said, the SVU detectives noticing the tiredness on all their faces. But it wasn't just being tired, they had the look of a group that was just worn down.

"Is there somewhere we can do a short briefing on what you have? I'd like to do that and give you our information before we find a hotel." Gibbs asked.

"We can head up to the crib, but let me make a quick call."

With that, Cragen picked up Elliot's phone and barked a few short orders into it.

"Lt. Casey is going to get everyone checked into the hotel down the street, they know us down there so it won't be a problem. They'll sent someone for your bags."

Gibbs raised his hand. "Really, Captain that's not necessary."

"Yes, it is. All in the name of interoffice co-operation."

He looked at the other man and nodded. "Thank you then."

That job completed, the group moved up into the loft area, Elliot and Olivia sat on the couch with NCIS seated in chairs across from them. The detectives quickly relayed the information to them, theirs being the short end of the story. Gibbs immediately picked up on some interesting facts while the two detectives spoke. One being that the two had been partners for a while. There was a level of familiarity between them that Gibbs saw infrequently. They completed each other's sentences or picked up new ones perfectly in-sync, without loosing momentum. What he really liked to see though, was their captain sitting back, listening to them talk, but never interjecting. Trusting his detectives completely with what they knew. It took years to gain that level of confidence.

During the briefing Gibbs didn't really learn anything new; same MO, same signature as the last eight victims. Regardless, he paid rapt attention; you never knew when something would appear. The smallest thing could solve a case. He could hear Kate typing in her Palm Pilot, making notes on things that interested her and that she should focus on in the reports. Gibbs had tried his own hand with the little device, but had become frustrated with it in a weeks' time. Since then, he had relied on Kate and her PDA and the old fashioned way of paper and pen.

The detectives finished their report and Gibbs nodded thoughtfully. Gathering his thoughts, he stood and started speaking.

"Lt Col Allison Williams is the ninth victim in a string of rape/murders of Marines since August 31st. It started in Denver at Lowery AFB, with two similar killings two days apart. Originally the local NCIS agents handled the investigation, which yielded next to nothing. No witnesses, similar dump job near a major intersection, no fibers, no DNA, just two dead Marine officers. Similar wounds on the chest, the women had been beaten and raped for what the ME approximated was 24 hours before being strangled."

Gibbs started pacing slightly. "He abducted them off-base, using a sedative to gain control before abducting them. Post-mortem the symbol is carved into their skin, for what reason we are still unsure, the FBI psychiatrist thinks it's our perps way of marking them, of making them his."

Elliot waited as Gibbs paused slightly, he could practically feel the anger radiating off the older man in waves.

"Four days after the second Denver victim, another body turned up just outside McConnell AFB is in Wichita. Same MO, same everything. Only this time no one realized it was a naval officer and local authorities started the investigation without alerting anyone. When two days later victim number two showed up with her naval ID Wichita made the connection with vic one and alerted their NCIS, who then made the connection with Denver over teletype and we were called in to take over. But by then it was too late."

Gibbs stopped walking and leaned against the table in the room. "Our guy had moved onto Wright Patterson in Ohio. We barely touched down in Kansas and had time to gather evidence, before we were leaving to investigate victim number 5. That was September 12th, predictable on the 14th a second vic turned up, same as before, nothing. No trace, no clues. Three days later, and right on time, he made an appearance in metro Detroit at Selfridge AFB. Two vics there and now we are here, with victim number nine to this guys credit."

Gibbs paused and let it sink in with the group; he could see something churning in their minds. Olivia was the first to speak up.

"Wait…your first vic in Detroit would have been…" she seemed to count in her head. "The 17th, making the second on the 19th. Today is the 25th, we found the body yesterday though, the 24th. That's five days."

Gibbs nodded, impressed. "Yeah, I know. Not sure why there is such a big gap. We were sure he was gone to ground when the 22nd came and went with no reports. That or he was getting sneakier."

Kate spoke up. "This guy is pretty consistent. It's the same vic every time. Female, Caucasian Marines between the ages of 25 and 35 and between 5 feet 2 and 5 feet 6 inches tall, all have brown hair of varying lengths. The profile we've been working on with the FBI specialist is a white male between the ages of 35 and 50, highly intelligent and well-educated. Probably former law enforcement, likely former Marine who was passed over in favor of a female or was rejected by a female officer. Possible disciplinary problems with employers or the government. He could have been a former crime scene worker at one point, which would explain the lack of evidence. Its honestly not much to go on, mostly because we have little to work with."

Elliot nodded, but Olivia spoke. "We have a FBI psychiatrist here who might be able to help."

"Great, can't hurt," she responded.

For a moment everyone was silent while they digested the information.

"Every time there is nothing to work with? No clues? No trace?" Cragen asked.

Gibbs shook his head. "We have no idea where the killings took place, only the dump locations. One exception being Detroit. We found a pubic hair that didn't belong to the victim. Ran it through every database we had…nothing. And a white cotton fiber in Des Moines…not exactly helpful."

Elliot considered this. "So he was in and out of the Marines before they started collecting DNA in '94. And he wears white t-shirts like every other guy on the planet."

"Pretty much."

"And you've never come close to him?" Olivia asked.

Elliot watched as Kate visibly flinched in her seat and Gibbs looked over at her. Olivia had hit a nerve obviously; the anger that he felt from the older man was matched in intensity in guilt from Kate.

"We got pretty close in Detroit, but he made us," was all Gibbs said, but Elliot knew there was more to the story. "Can we get a look at the scene where she was found?"

"Yeah, no problem," Cragen said and they all stood.

With little discussion the group headed down, and Gibbs realized their bags were gone. He had to give them credit around here, they were very friendly. More so than anywhere else.

"Where are we headed?" Gibbs asked and looked at a large map of the city pinned to a bulletin board.

Olivia walked over and placed a finger on the corner of Seventh and Lexington. "Right here."

"Liv, we can switch, you can drive with them." Elliot turned and addressed Kate who was standing next to him. "And one of you can ride with me."

"Done." Gibbs said. "Tony, you're with Elliot."

"Got it boss."

Gibbs tilted his head slightly and realized that was the first time Tony had said something since they landed. A record for the young agent, but not a bad thing.

tbc……………………


	3. Of Marines and Men

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

Disclaimer/Summary: All on the first chapter.

AN: Thank you once again for all the lovely reviews. I really do appreciate them so please don't stop! This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, not sure why that happened, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

AN2: Kat, the answer to your question….Marines are stationed at all military bases, I just choose to pick on the Navy in this fic.

AN3: I'm surprised no one has asked yet…Shaitan is an Islamic word meaning evil spirit. Seemed to fit in my crazy guys case.

Chapter 3: Of Marines and Men

Elliot walked out into the late fall warmth and sighed. They were having a heat wave of sorts in New York. As he and Tony approached the car Elliot removed his suit jacket and flung it into the backseat. Tony followed suit, removing his light jacket. They piled into the car and waved to the other group as they pulled out.

The second they hit the street Elliot turned on the AC and rolled up his sleeves.

"So," he started. "How long have you been with NCIS?"

"Two and a half years now."

"Where were you before? Cop somewhere?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

"Baltimore Homicide…"

Before Tony could get anymore out Elliot burst out laughing and glanced at the young man who looked utterly confused by his outburst.

"Seriously? Baltimore?"

"Yeah? What's so funny?"

"When were you in Baltimore?"

"99 through the beginning of 2001." Tony's face was covered in confusion.

"One of the other detectives…Munch. He's former Baltimore Homicide."

Sudden understanding crossed Tony's face and he snapped his fingers in Elliot's direction. "John Munch?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

Tony grinned. "I knew _of _him. He left nearly a year before I got in, but his name was legendary."

"Wow, you missed a real treat."

"I've heard," Tony remarked.

Elliot made the turn onto Lex and heard Tony make a "huh" sound.

"Huh, what?"

"What?" Tony repeated.

"You just said 'huh."

"Yeaaah." He drew it out and pointed to Elliot's right forearm. "Were you in the military?"

"Yeah, Marines."

"Of course," Tony muttered, it was just his luck, one marine to another.

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?" It was his turn to be confused.

"Gibbs is a former Marine MP."

"That's it!" Elliot exclaimed as he pulled into a parking space just outside the still marked crime scene.

"That's what?"

"I knew something about Gibbs was familiar, he has that Marine attitude."

"Yes, yes he does." Tony said as they got out of the car and saw Olivia pull up right behind them.

As the other group got out and approached, Olivia called to Elliot. "Hey El! Guess what Gibbs is?"

Without missing a beat he answered. "A Marine."

That stopped her in her tracks for a second before she looked at Tony and knew the answer. "Ahhhhh, I see."

Elliot waited for Gibbs to draw nearer to him. "Always good to meet another Marine."

"Likewise." Gibbs responded and they shook hands again before walking toward the scene a mere hundred yards away, Olivia and Elliot leading.

"Guess what Tony was?" He quizzed her, leaning in slightly to her personal space.

"What?" she asked and stepped around a fire hydrant.

"A Baltimore Homicide cop."

Again Olivia stopped and turned around, looking at Tony with an amused expression.

"No kidding."

"Nope."

"DiNozzo…." Gibbs warning tone called from behind Elliot. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, boss! I swear. Apparently the infamous John Munch is a detective here in SVU."

"Who?" Gibbs asked distractedly as he looked around at the buildings.

"Gibbs! Munch, I know I've mentioned him. He was there before I was. Huge conspiracy theorist."

"Ahhh of course. Now, can we focus here, DiNozzo?"

"Sure, boss."

Elliot and Olivia had stood by watching the conversation with mild amusement. To Elliot, Gibbs and Tony reminded him of Fin and Munch.

Walking to the entrance of the alley Elliot stopped. "Well here we are."

"Good, Kate…"

Quickly she cut him off. "Pictures."

Tony chimed in after her. "Sketches."

"CSU already did that," Elliot offered.

Gibbs turned to him. "No offense, Detective, but we like our own photos."

Elliot merely shrugged and looked at Olivia; she shrugged back at him and they watched the two get to work.

Gibbs turned to the two NYPD. "The neighborhood was canvassed?"

"Yup."

Gibbs seemed to consider this a moment before turning back to Tony. "Tony, let Kate handle it. We're going canvassing."

"But…" Elliot started to protest.

"Again, no offense. But I'd like to talk to a few people myself."

"Whatever helps," Elliot said. "Liv..."

"I'll be right here."

Without speaking all the parties understood that this wasn't an average killer, and no team member would be left alone.

Just over an hour later the men returned to find Kate still drawing and Olivia talking to what looked to Elliot to be a homeless person. As he approached he heard the tail end of the conversation.

"…UNLV shirt. Yup, got it. Thank you, sir, hang right here, would you?"

With that she turned back to the group, a large smile covering her face. Elliot smiled in return, he knew that look. She's got something.

Elliot heard Tony talking to Kate as he and Gibbs approached Olivia.

"What do you have?"

"My new buddy Mel over there informs me that he saw a tall male, brown hair, average weight wearing a short sleeved UNLV shirt and jeans exit that alley about 9:30 last night. Nearly ran him over. He headed north to the subway platform on Lex."

Gibbs seemed to pause to digest this information before speaking. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, said he had a tattoo on his forearm. Looked military to him." Suddenly she looked at Elliot and indicated with her hand to follow her. "Melvin!"

The homeless man turned to her and smiled slightly, happy to see the pretty brunette coming back toward him.

"Hey Melvin. C'mere." She paused and grabbed Elliot's shirt, pulling up the sleeve to expose his forearm. "Look anything like this?"

"Yeah, yeah. A little bit, but it was a little different. The wording…"

Olivia released Elliot's arm and thanked Melvin, telling him to wait so they could get a thorough description of the tattoo that kind of looked like Elliots'.

Gibbs had been strangely silent and Elliot was about to ask when he spoke. "It's a Marine."

Elliot suddenly understood. Gibbs couldn't picture one of their own doing this. "Yeah, or maybe a wannabe who got the tattoo to pretend he was."

Gibbs shook his head. "No, that's why it's been so precise, no evidence…nothing. We suspected military, but I...I guess I hoped it couldn't be."

With that the other man turned back towards his agents who were just putting their stuff away. Elliot leaned into Olivia, his lips brushing her ear.

"He's a little intense."

"You think?"

Elliot just smiled at her.

Gibbs met with Kate and Tony on the sidewalk.

"Anything?"

Kate just shook her head. "Not a thing."

"Nothing, boss."

Gibbs let out a big sigh and looked around again.

Kate asked, "You guys have any luck?"

"No, but apparently Olivia did. A bum was knocked over by our possible suspect. Caught a glance at his tattoo, Marine bird-ball-and-anchor."

Immediately Kate's face fell. "Well, we thought it could have been military…"

"I know. Lets go." He was more short than usual.

They both nodded and followed him silently back to the cars.

Arriving at the stationhouse, Gibbs immediately followed Melvin into the room and watched silently as he gave a description of the tattoo to the sketch artist. He was unable, however, to remember the mans face. Kate and Tony had taken over the crib, Kate downloading the pictures from the digital camera onto the hard drive of her laptop. Tony, meanwhile, compared the sketches against the ones from Detroit. They only carried the previous cases full file with them and then just a skeleton file of the other cases. Due to the sheer amount of paper bringing all of it was logistically impossible.

Kate was staring at the pictures in frustration when Gibbs came up the stairs, startling both of them with a not exactly cheery greeting of "hey".

"Gibbs," Kate said evenly after nearly jumping from the chair, Tony just looked at his boss with a slightly annoyed expression.

"We've got a pretty good drawing of the tattoo, but the only thing it gives us is that our perp is a Marine. His tattoo doesn't have the typical division markings on it, or else Melvin couldn't see them. I'm going to have Abby run a search on dishonorably discharged Marines in our age range and see what we get."

Sighing, Kate went back to the pictures. "This is so frustrating Gibbs! Nine victims and all we have is a hair we can't match, a cotton fiber and a tattoo. How many Marines are dishonorably discharged? And we don't even know when he left! Or a clue about his age! Useless!" With that she flung her hands in the air and made an aggravated noise.

"We WILL get this guy Kate," Gibbs said, his voice determined.

"Yeah? When Gibbs?" She turned in her chair to face him. "How many more women are going to _die_ before we get this guy? We have maybe a day before he does it again and moves on!" She is yelling by the end of her sentence.

"Kate…" he started softly and looked at Tony, who put down his file and headed to the stairs, disappearing. "Kate..." he squatted next to her, but was quickly cut off.

"Don't," she said, raising a hand at him. "Just…don't. I'm just tired, that's all. I'm sorry."

"Never apologize," he said, staring at her intently.

She smiled slightly. "And which rule is that again?"

"It's not." He stood and held out one hand to her. "Come on, it's nearly three, let's get out of here. We'll go to the hotel, find our rooms, and get a little rest before coming back. Plus, I really think DiNozzo could use a shower."

She laughed lightly and took his hand. "All right, let me collect the files."

He nodded. "I'm going to find Tony before he gets into trouble."

"Good plan," she called as he headed down the stairs.

"So…Olivia. I found out your partner is a Marine. What's your story?" he asked as he leaned on her desk.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your partner, he's a Marine. Seems logical for him to be a cop. Why are you?" Olivia sighed internally and wished, just once, that Elliot was there to save her.

"Because I wanted to help people," she said and stood up, heading to the lockers. He followed, leaning against them and staring at her.

"Oh, come on. Everyone gives that answer."

"Well, in this case it's true."

The kid had tilted his head and nodded. "Fair enough. Do you date much? I mean…if your job is anything like mine, it's nearly impossible."

_Oh god, _she thought and really wondered where Elliot was. "I really don't think…"

Just then Elliot walked into the room, took one look at them, and gave Tony a narrow expression. The younger man quickly moved back from her, only succeeding in bumping into his boss, who had just appeared down the stairs.

Gibbs had watched Elliot look at Tony with an angry expression and in that second understood the closeness he and Olivia shared; something slightly more than just partnership.

"Tony…." Gibbs hissed as Tony swiftly got out of his way.

"Yeah, boss."

"Grab your gear, we are going to the hotel." With that he dismissed Tony, who promptly went up the stairs, and turned to Olivia who had moved back to her desk. "If you guys don't mind, we'll head over, set up a little bit and be back later."

Elliot nodded. "Go ahead, get settled in. We'll let you know if we hear anything."

"Great, thanks. Know of a good place to eat around here?"

Elliot looked at Olivia and she nodded at him. Gibbs watched the silent interaction with interest.

"How about this, come back to the station say 6:30 and we'll take you to the local bar. Good food and lots of NYPD," Elliot propositioned.

Gibbs considered it for only a second before agreeing. "Sounds good."

The two had nodded and Elliot watched the NCIS agent leave.

Once Gibbs was out of earshot, Elliot turned to his partner and smiled lasciviously. "So, what do you want to do for our three hours?"

She merely rolled her eyes at him. "Paperwork, El. Paperwork." With that she handed him a couple of files and sat at her computer.

Elliot looked down at the files disappointedly. "That really wasn't what I had in mind, Liv," he muttered and turned, sitting at his desk.

"I know…" she whispered over the desks and raised her eyebrows at him suggestively.

tbc……………………………psssst…don't forget to leave a tip and review.


	4. Downtime

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

Disclaimers: Me no own, but wouldn't it be nice? Tony, Gibbs and Elliot all in the same room? I might faint.

AN1: I know, I know, I'm a day late. But I have a really good excuse! I was on vacation and only flew back yesterday, and just didn't have time to prep this bad boy. My apologizes, wont happen again. ;-)

AN2: Ohh thank you, thank you for all the reviews, I so appreciate it, you have no idea. Please, keep it up! I generally don't comment directly on reviews, but if you say something that catches my interest, I'll respond, especially if you are confused about something.

To those who have never seen NCIS, you really should. It's an EXCELLENT show, I can't say that enough. Its nothing at all like JAG, it's already better at the end of its first season. 8 PM at Tuesday on CBS. Give it a shot.

I wish I could nail Tony; he's not exactly hard on the eyes. Hmmmmm tips, not a bad idea, put a little paypal link…I mean, I would never do that CBS and NBC, cause it's wrong. Heh.

AN3: IMPORTANT: It came to my attention recently that I had my bases confused where the women where killed (goes to show you can't always trust the internet). So to make it clearer, I'm going to change the locations and update the first three chapters to reflect that. But until I do that the new bases are (in killing order) Camp Pendleton in CA, Fort Leonard Wood, MO, Parris Island, SC and the 'near miss' is in Newport, RI instead of Detroit. The reason for their being in NY will be explained later.

* * *

Chapter 4: Downtime

The three NCIS officers rode the elevator up to the third floor in silence. After the doors opened, they turned left as they had been instructed by the front desk. Looking at her key, Kate kept an eye as the numbers went by before getting to hers - 317. Watching the other two, she noticed that Gibbs stopped at the door next to hers in 319 and that Tony was across the hall in 318.

Just as Kate and Tony opened their doors Gibbs voice stopped them, "Be ready to leave here at 6:00 PM."

Both responded in the positive and entered their rooms. The first thing Gibbs noticed was the connecting door into Kate's room. His bed was on the right side, oddly the same wall as the door; he imagined Kate's room was a mirror image of his, her bed on the same wall as his. Looked like their rooms would be the meeting place, if needed.

Gibbs continued to scan the room; his bag was setting on top of the queen bed. There was a small desk by the window and a reasonably good sized bathroom with a human sized tub in it. _Ohh__, Kate's gonna love that_, he thought.__

In her own room, Kate opened her bag and pulled out fresh clothes. She had already scoped out the room and noticed both the connecting door to Gibbs' room near the head of her bed and the full-sized tub. Grabbing the bag off the bed and setting the clothes on the small desk, she pulled the drapes shut and set the alarm for 5 PM. As much as her head was spinning to work, her body had hit the wall and she needed rest to be functional. Stripping down to a tank top and underwear she laid down, pulling just the comforter over her body and fell into a deep sleep.

Unfortunately, her dreams were nothing close to pleasant. It was always a different dream, but with the same plot. The perp gets away because of her and in most versions of the dream, he goes on to kill dozens more women while she sits, unable to help. In every dream, she was practically frozen in place as she watched him butcher the next victim, then the next and the next, each one more horrific than the last.

In this one, however, she was the victim. She could see him approaching her slowly, licking his lips like she was prey to be devoured. She struggled against unseen bindings, unable to escape, unable to do much of anything except watch his hulking figure come closer. After what seemed like an eternity, he got within a breath's distance and she could smell the stench of death on him, she struggled more, panic flowing through her. She could hear her heart beating in her ears; a sick feeling was crawling up her throat. Kate looked up into his eyes, which were staring at her, challenging her to stop him …

When a sudden blaring had her sitting upright in bed, gasping for breath and sweat pouring down her back.

It took Kate a minute to figure out it was the alarm and she rolled over, shutting it off. For a moment she just sat in the dark, allowing her drenched body to chill in the cool air of the room. After several minutes she was practically shivering, so she got up and grabbed her clothes. Eyeing the tub, she plugged the drain and filled it with water, sinking into the warmth when it was full.

Tony rolled over in his bed, thinking that tomorrow would be a bad day: interviewing the victim's family. Normally that was done as soon as possible, but NYPD had been told to hold off and informed the family of the delay. Tony almost wished they had gotten to it today, then he wouldn't have to dread it for tomorrow.

Tony didn't hold out much hope, every interview had gone the same, yielding nothing. And as the clocked slipped away, so did the chances of finding this guy before he killed his second victim in New York. Sighing, he looked at the clock and decided to get up. Better to be early then risk Gibbs' ire.

At six o'clock sharp all three doors opened and the refreshed agents headed down in the elevator once again. Tony and Gibbs had both worn jeans and long-sleeved shirts and carried jackets. Kate had on a pair of khaki pants with a lightweight pink sweater and carried a coat.

Getting to the curb, Gibbs realized they were a mere three blocks from the station house. Deciding their attire was sufficient, he turned to the other two, who were talking about something inane. "Let's go. We're walking."

Tony had looked at him, then at Kate, and back at Gibbs, "Walking?"

"Yes, DiNozzo. Get moving."

"Yes, boss," Tony gave his best attempt at a salute and fell into step with Gibbs, leaving Kate to walk slightly behind the other two.

Silence reigned until Gibbs spoke up, "We'll find him."

"What?" Tony asked him, distracted from his close inspection of the city lights in the fading twilight.

"He's here, and this time we are going to find him."

Again silence fell over them and five minutes later they were at the doors to the precinct. As Gibbs opened the door a laughing Olivia appeared, Elliot not far behind. He watched them with curiosity, his instincts telling him there was more to this relationship than just "partnership".

Olivia sobered slightly upon seeing Gibbs, "Ahh, excellent. Ready for some good food?"

"Absolutely!" Tony called out.

"Fin and Much are going to meet us there in a bit," she said. "It's only a couple blocks. Are you okay with walking?"

"We walked here," Gibbs replied and followed her lead.

Idle chatter filled the air. Elliot and Olivia were careful to include the rest of them and refrained from asking terribly personal questions.

Olivia seemed to take a keen interest in Kate, who had been quiet the whole time. "So, Kate. Tony's a Baltimore cop, Gibbs here is a Marine, what about you?"

Gibbs watched Kate pale slightly; she never did like to discuss the reasons behind her departure from the Secret Service. "I was in the Secret Service."

"Impressive. Why did you leave? It's quite a jump from protecting the President to crawling around looking for evidence."

Kate opened her mouth and closed it once before answering, "Tell me about it." She paused again, "Gibbs offered me a job after I worked with him briefly and I took it. Only slightly better hours."

Olivia nodded thoughtfully. There was something else behind this, but she knew better than to go digging now. These weren't perps, they were trained investigators and would resent her trying to dig for answers in a second. "How do you like it?" she asked instead.

"It's different, but I'm enjoying the challenge," Kate answered quickly, but her voice turned morose. "Until now anyway."

Again Olivia nodded, this time understanding her meaning fully. It's great when you catch the bad guy, but when you don't …

They arrived at the bar and Elliot held the door open as they all entered. Gibbs looked around, it was like every other cop bar he'd been in. Small, but cozy, dark paneling covering the walls from floor to ceiling, except behind the bar where a large mirror was centered on the wall behind the twelve foot bar. On either side were tall, but narrow, shelving units holding an extraordinarily large selection of liquor.

Elliot led the group to two small tables pushed together to make a larger one for them all to sit at. Instinct guided the group, Elliot and Olivia sitting next to each other on one side, leaving two seats open for the missing detectives to Olivia's right. Gibbs sat across from Elliot and Kate from Olivia, Tony sat on the other side of Kate.

The waitress arrived quickly, and greeted Elliot and Olivia by name. They responded in kind and Elliot quickly put in an order for a pitcher of beer. Gibbs had nodded in agreement with Elliot's decision, as did Kate and Tony. One glass of beer wouldn't do any harm, and they all needed it.

Elliot chuckled and upped the order to two pitchers. He heard his partner sigh loudly and he winced. He'd forgotten again.

She spoke over him, her voice light, "Liz, I'll just have iced tea."

"Yeah, I figured, Olivia," the waitress winked and left to put the order in, leaving menus behind.

Elliot leaned over and spoke in low tones, "Sorry."

She smiled wanly at him and spoke equally low, "It's okay, I'd like to forget too, but I have the scar."

She watched him wince again and immediately felt bad. She resisted the urge to reach up and touch his face but that wouldn't be a good display in front of their visitors. Turning their attention back, they saw the three of them trolling the menu, apparently oblivious to the goings on across from them. But Elliot had a feeling very little got by Gibbs.

He watched as Gibbs leaned over and said something to the other brunette, who merely gave him a look. Gibbs smiled slightly, but backed away from her.

Quickly the waitress returned with two pitchers of beer and an iced tea which she handed to Olivia. Even faster food orders where taken and again she disappeared.

"No beer for you, Olivia?" Kate questioned as she poured her own glass.

"No," she paused as if debating how much to reveal. "I'm good, thanks."

Kate nodded and passed the pitcher along. More idle chit chat continued, the detectives getting to know each other. Elliot and Gibbs had quickly formed a bond through their experiences in the Marines.

"Gunnery sergeant, huh? How long were you in?" Elliot asked as he took a long drink of his beer.

"Sixteen years. The last four as an MP."

Elliot chuckled, "Yeah, I can see that."

Gibbs merely shrugged. "How long for you?"

"One shot and I was out."

Gibbs eyes rose, "That short?"

"My wife got pregnant with our first shortly after I got in, I decided to do one stint, get college paid for and become a cop."

"You're married then?"

Gibbs watched something dark cross the other man's face. "For another couple months, we are seperated. We were married twenty years and have four beautiful children…."

Tony had apparently overheard their conversation and spoke across Kate who was deep in conversation with Olivia. The two women had found a fast common ground. Being women in a mostly male world, and succeeding at it.

"Hey, boss, maybe you should take pointers."

Kate's head had immediately popped up and looked at Tony at the same second Gibbs turned his head toward the younger man, "Hey DiNozzo, maybe you should shut up."

Tony merely smiled at him and raised his eyebrows.

Olivia watched with amusement, and leaned across the table to Kate, "Are they always like that?"

"Yes," came her simple response.

"I don't wish I was you," Olivia chuckled.

Tony had apparently heard the conversation between the women and leaned into Kate, speaking to Olivia, "Why not? You'd miss out on all the fun."

"Fun?" she asked and Kate groaned.

"Yeah, I'm a fun guy to be around; you just haven't been exposed enough." Kate recognized the tone of his voice. He was hitting on her.

"Is that right?" Olivia's face was covered with amusement, but her retort was cut off when two other men approached the table.

Kate looked up; one was dressed in all black, from head to toe, even sporting a long coat in the mild temperature, and was reed thin. The other resembled a well-dressed thug, his attire also black, but with an electric blue shirt under his suit vest.

Olivia looked up and smiled at them. The black man sat next to her, and the other chose to move a chair to the head of the table, probably so he could see the whole table.

Olivia took charge of the introductions, "Detectives John Munch and Odafin Tutuola, these are NCIS Special Agents Jethro Gibbs, Kate Todd and Tony DiNozzo."

Yet again another round of 'hellos' were said, this time most of it involved Fin pronouncing his name again and informing them to call him "Fin". The waitress reappeared and took their food orders, promising to have them out shortly.

Munch had been eyeing Tony since he sat down and finally leaned over to the young agent.

"Do I know you? Your name is familiar."

Tony smirked and put down his glass, "I was in Baltimore Homicide after you left."

"Ahhhhh, right! I heard about the cop that had aced the Detectives' test the first time around," Munch's voice was loud enough to cause both Kate and Gibbs to stop their respective conversations and turn to look at him.

Tony visibly flinched and glanced down the table at his co-workers, wondering if they actually heard. The expression on Kate's face was enough. They had.

Gibbs was the first to speak, his face neutral, "You _aced_ the Detectives' test?"

"Ace is probably to strong a word …," Tony started but was cut off by Munch clapping his back.

"He tied the previous high for a first timer," the older man had a huge smile, while Tony just looked pained.

"Really?" Gibbs asked and stared directly at his underling, not saying anything else, which Tony knew was a sign for trouble.

The four NYPD watched the conversation with confusion, unsure what the big deal was. Light conversation resumed shortly thereafter, and before long Munch and Fin's food arrived. Everyone finished their meals and little was said aside from commenting on the excellence of the food. Both Gibbs and Elliot kept an eye on their respective partners as they ate.

Elliot watched as his partner ate half her sandwich before pushing the plate away.

"Liv …," he warned.

"I'll get it to go, El," she said and picked at the fries. "I'm full. Really."

He eyed her suspiciously, but nodded. Her appetite hadn't really come back, and the doctor said it probably wouldn't until she was fully off the medications in the next week.

Glancing at the table, and realizing no one was watching, he slid one hand under the table and squeezed her thigh. "I know, I just worry."

She smiled and repeated his motion, covering his hand with hers. "Thank you."

He smiled and pulled the hand back before anyone noticed, picking up his hamburger and finishing it off.

Once the plates had been cleared away and glasses of water brought to replace the beer, Elliot got down to business. There was one thing he was curious about. "So, you said you got close in Newport. How close?"

tbc………………………………I know, it's a lame place to leave it, but if I get some happy reviews, perhaps you'll get another chapter sooner.


	5. Bedtime Stories

Title: Shaitan

Author: CSIphile/Redwing

Summary and disclaimer all on the first chapter.

AN1: I have been horrifically remiss. Both Kat and kukrae have been incredible to me and my fic the past few weeks-ok, months. Kukrae for holding my hand while I talked (or typed, as the case may be) out the plot and doing beta work and Kat for doing yet MORE beta work and pointing out a few small problems (coughbasescough). Both have veen invaluable. Thank you both.

AN2: And of course thanks to the readers, Im SO glad you seem to be enjoying this. 40 plus reviews for 4 chapters…amazing really. Please, keep it up.

To whoever suggested adding the other L&O franchises: it wont happen here. I had a hard enough time juggling these 5 main characters plus Fin and Munch. That's enough crossover for me, thank you much. J  About Gibbs not knowing Tonys detective score…that was a bit of creative license. Sure he knows what school McGee went to, but does Gibbs know his SAT score…probably not.

AN3: I meant to have this out earlier, but alas, not. Real life got in the way. So hows one day earlier? That acceptable?

Ahhhh, this would be a repost, not exactly sure what happened the first time round, but it wasn't the right version of this chapter. I apologize for the crappy grammer.

Chapter 5: Bedtime Stories

Again at the mention of Newport, Elliot watched as Gibbs gave Kate a sideways look. She nodded slightly, as if giving permission.

"We decided in Detroit to set up a sting of sorts. I'm sure you noticed, Kate physically matches the victim profile perfectly." He paused and swallowed, "He stalked the bases, looking for the perfect victim, we figure he watched the base at a minimum for a day before finding someone, probably both victims. His criteria is pretty slim, he's going after a memory-not someone specific."

He paused, having the table's attention. "So we decided to place Kate at Newport, we put her in the day we found the first victim, we had discussed the possibility in South Carolina of using a decoy. We put her in a position that would leave her exposed to anyone watching from outside. Tony and I stayed close, but not close enough to tip him off; we shadowed her every second that she wasn't on base. We hoped he would take the bait. He did and confirmed our suspicions on his movements."

Tony picked up the story when Gibbs paused again, "We were following her late at night on the off day, figuring if she was the target he would grab her soon. So we made it easy, late night stroll in full uniform through the downtown. Everything was quiet until the next thing we know, Kate's pulled between two buildings. Gibbs and I bolted to her position and found her slumped on the ground, our perp standing over her."

Gibbs started again, "We gave chase, but we lost him."

Olivia was staring at Kate with a strange expression, "You all right?"

Kate nodded, "Yeah, it happened so fast. One second I'm walking down the street, the next I'm getting a needle in the neck and am practically unconscious. No real harm though." She moved one hand to the right side of her neck, rubbing the spot lightly where the needle had punctured. "If I had been watching a little closer, I probably would have seen him before he got me. As it was all I managed to see was that he was taller than me and he was white."

Gibbs gave her a warning glance, but Tony put one hand on her shoulder in support. "It wasn't your fault, Kate. We couldn't get a description either, it was way too dark," the younger agent said.

She didn't say anything, just nodded solemnly.

"Sometimes things are beyond your control," Olivia said. "As cops we are trained to be more observant, but sometimes…sometimes they get you anyway. You figure since you're trained in observation you can protect yourself, that nothing will happen, that you have the advantage over the perp. But sometimes, despite allthe training, it's just a matter of them being bigger than you, or getting the jump on you, or being crazier than you."

"Sounds like you've had some experience," Gibbs said.

"Little bit," she nodded.

Gibbs stared at her for a moment before looking at his team. They still looked exhausted, even Tony, who normally seemed to be a boundless supply of energy, had hit the wall. The few naps they'd had over the past 24 hours had not helped the sleep deprivation they already suffered. As much as he wanted to head for the station house and comb through all the evidence collected, Gibbs realized it would be better to do it with clear minds.

"Well, we are going to head for the hotel and try to get a full night's sleep. See you in the morning, Detectives." With that he stood and collected his coat, and the other two followed suit.

"Goodnight," Kate said for the group.

"Night," Elliot replied and watched them leave. He turned to his partner, "Come on, I'll drive you home."

"Okay."

The four remaining detectives stood and after saying goodnight to the waitress, headed out the door and to their respective vehicles.

Elliot opened the door to his sedan for her before heading to the driver's side and getting in. The car was silent for several blocks and they were almost to her apartment before he broke that silence, "You okay?"

She turned from her position of staring out the window to look at him, "Yeah, fine."

"You sure didn't sound fine in there."

"It just gave me the chills. What happened to Kate…," she stopped and looked in her lap.

"Liv…," he pulled into a parking spot by her building and took her hand in his.

"Come up?" she asked so quietly he almost didn't hear her.

Without a word he shut off the engine and opened car the door, following her closely to her second floor apartment. They walked in and she dropped her bag and keys on the table in the hall. They both shed their light fall coats and hung them up.

She moved into the dark living room, and without turning on the lights, sat on one end of the couch, the arm holding her up. Following her once again, he sat as close as he could get. Even in the near dark, he could see the pain etched on her face.

"Liv?" he questioned, wrapping his strong arms around her. He slid down the couch a little bit and pulled her with him, laying her head in his lap. He didn't say anymore, knowing she would talk when she wanted to; instead playing with the ever growing strands of her hair.

"It just…hearing her talk, it was so close, El. So close…it brought back all those feelings from that night. The overwhelming fear. The kind that stops your heart, it's so terrifying you almost forget to breathe. You're standing there, all alone, and this lunatic has your life in his hands. Literally."

He can hear her sniffle and shifted the two of them so he was lying behind her on the couch, one arm wrapped tightly around her midsection, the other under her neck where she could grasp his hand tightly.

"Tell me," he requested.

"What?"

"Everything, Liv, tell me everything about what happened. What you felt, how scared you were. I wasn't there for you then, but I can be now."

She rolled over so they were facing each other and he could see her lip trembling slightly. "It startled me so much when he pushed me into the alley. I was watching another guy go past, and in my head eliminating him as a suspect. I was _so_ fixated on him that when I turned I just…ran into someone. That someone was our perp. I was stunned at first, in two seconds I had found the man who raped and murdered four other women. But oddly, I wasn't worried, I figured I could stall him at least until the cavalry arrived."

She paused and he started rubbing her back in a circular motion. "That's when I heard it…Mike. Saying he'd lost me. I knew I was screwed, but strangely there was no fear. I was still _sure_ that Cragen would find me first. Despite the fact he had killed them so quick before. So…I tried to knee him."

"That's my girl," he interrupted softly.

"He stopped me, called me a whore and put a boning knife to my throat. That's when I realized my best option was to pretend to be helpless. God, Elliot, he really was insane, he called me every name in the book; told me I was dirty, worthless, not fit to exist. The weird part is, I almost started to believe him."

"Why?" he reached out and wiped away the tears that had started to fall silently down her cheeks.

She moved even closer to him, seeking warmth. "Because, Elliot, my whole life I was told that by the one person who was supposed to love me."

"Ohhh, Liv…," he leaned down and kissed her forehead, then her cheeks and finally touched her lips lightly.

"Its okay. Really," she touched his cheek and moved her head back slightly.

"So he was calling you names?" he asked to get her back on track and off a separate painful topic.

"Every last one. That's when it happened. Cragen started yelling orders into the mic, they could hear everything that was going on. Well, he heard the mic too, and got really angry. That's when the fear started. He took my gun, I could _feel_ the anger coming off him, he reeked of it. He put my gun to my head, and I closed my eyes. God help me, El, I closed my eyes and pretended I was back here with you. I know it was a sign of submissiveness, of fear, but I couldn't stop it," again she stopped and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "That's when he got closer to me, pressed himself up against me. I could feel his hot breath on my cheek, feel the chill of his skin, smell him. Then he said words I'll never forget for the rest of my life 'you pretended to be a victim. Well, sweetheart, now you will be'. That's when I could really hear my heart pumping in my chest, so fast, so scared. In that second I _knew_ I wouldn't make it out alive, but I tried not to let him know that…," she paused and bit her lower lip.

"Do you want to stop?" he asked, pushing the hair from her forehead.

"No, I need to talk about it. I sorta…glossed over it with the department shrink. I think I'll feel better if I actually let it out. It's been so long."

He nodded, "Take your time."

She closed her eyes again. "I can still see it like it was yesterday. For some reason something in me snapped, I refused to let this guy kill me. So I got angry, really angry. I insulted him, he hit me." Involuntarily her hand went to her now healed lip. "That just served to anger me more, no perp had _ever_ gotten the best of me, I wasn't about to let this one. The fear, the terror was pushed to the side, I wanted to make him mad, make him slip up. I think my survival instinct shut off, 'cause otherwise I don't think I would have implied that his mother abused him."

He pulled her away slightly and looked at her, "You insulted the mother of the man with a gun to your head?"

She laughed slightly, "Yeah, I guess I did."

"What is wrong with you?" he asked quietly.

"I was trying to piss him off. And it worked, a little too well. He was…infuriated. And suddenly I was afraid again. Me, Elliot, afraid. I'd never felt like that my whole life. He had the knife on me in a second, I could feel the tip pressed against my abdomen. After that I can't remember much except the pain. Blinding, excruciating pain, and my whole world started to go dark. I just remember thinking I would never see your face again, never feel you touch me or hear your voice. I could feel blood and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the cold ground fighting to stay awake.  I terrified that if I closed my eyes that would be it; I wouldn't wake up and the next time you would see me it would be my funeral. I focused on the sirens, then I recall gunshots and finally Fin calling my name. After that, nothing until I woke up with you there."

"Jesus, Liv," he muttered and pulled her even closer to him, wanting to feel her, know she was still here with him. He placed a kiss in her hair. "I'm so sorry, baby. So sorry I wasn't there for you."

"You didn't know. It was something that happened that we didn't have control over. I thought I could take care of myself, but sometimes…you can't."

She tipped her head up, and remarked, "Some things though, you can control." Completing the motion, she pressed her lips to his lightly, unsure of his reaction. They had agreed to lay low, and this was the first intimate contact they'd had since sleeping together. But in that moment she needed to feel him, needed to feel something beside the residual terror running through her.

Instead of pulling back like he should have, Elliot gave into her, pressing his lips against hers and running his hands through her hair. He easily prodded her mouth open and clashed his tongue with hers. His hands broke free from her hair and wandered down the back of her shirt, pulling the hem out of the pants she was wearing. He slid his hands under the cotton fabric and when he pressed her lower body closer to him he felt her let out a tiny gasp.

Pulling his head back, he went after the soft skin on her neck, replacing the memory of a knife with his lips. Slowly he moved down to the crook between her neck and collar bone, while his hands worked their way up to her shoulder blades. Suddenly he pulled his hands out of the back of her shirt and brought them to the front, going to work on the buttons holding the material together. He felt her hands returning the favor on the belt buckle, her hand grazing over the crotch of his pants. Without warning he stopped. "Olivia."

She all but ignored him, her hands intent on pulling down his zipper while her lips suckled on his neck muscles. He grabbed her hands, stilling them.

"Liv…we agreed." He wanted this as much as her, probably more so, the need to feel her under him was overwhelming, but at the same time, they had agreed not to do this. It would make it more difficult to stay away, not that Kathy was bringing up his infidelity as an issue in the divorce, he was just being…respectful to her.

She paused her movements, he could feel her chest heaving against him. Her almost free breasts coming into contact with his bare chest every time.

"I need you, Elliot," she whispered. "Please."

_Lord help me, _he thought and looked into her pleading eyes. By now his eyes had adjusted to the dim light in the room and could see the expression on her face. And it did him in, he needed her as much as she needed him and he couldn't deny her. There was just one more problem.  "I don't want to hurt you, Liv."

"You can't," she whispered.

He leaned into her, kissing her lightly on the lips again; just the barest touch that gave his assent. Pulling away he helped them both sit up on the couch, and then stood, holding out a hand to her and then pulling her with him toward her bedroom.

Mid-Town Hotel

Manhattan

Gibbs rolled over and looked at the clock for the third time in twenty minutes. They had gotten back to the hotel an hour ago and each had slipped into their rooms, exhausted and grateful for the potential of a full night's sleep. He imagined right now that Tony was snoring loudly, happily dreaming about the model of the week. Kate, however, was a different story, and the reason he was still awake. The paper thin walls of the room was doing very little to suppress the noise she was making. Gibbs suspected since they had connecting rooms it was some conspiracy so Mom and Dad could hear what the kids were doing next door.

He heard her walk across the room and sit down on the edge of the bed, the mattress making a telltale squeak even under the weight of her light frame. It was silent for a little bit and Gibbs rolled over, staring at the door a few feet to his right, wondering if she had finally given up.

_Squeeeeeek_

Nope.

"That's it," he muttered and flung the covers off, throwing on an old t-shirt and sweatpants. Approaching the door, he unlocked his side and swung it open, knocking harshly. He heard her stand and approach slowly.

"Come on, Kate, open up," he called through the door.

He heard the lock being undone and finally her side swung open. Now they stood in the doorway, staring at each other.

"You need something, Gibbs?" she finally asked.

"Yeah, some sleep. Which is what _you _should be doing."

Immediately she realized the problem, "Oh, sorry. I'll try to keep it down." She backed into her room, allowing him to follow her.

"No, Kate. No keeping it down. No working for a little while. Sleeping."

She cocked her head at him, "I seem to recall we've had this conversation before, so we don't need to have it again."

"Obviously we do, because instead of sleeping you're doing whatever it is you're doing in here," he looked around her room, files were spread across the bed, all open to various pages. Instantly his tone softened. "Kate…"

"I can't sleep yet. There's something, Gibbs; something we are missing."

"We'll find it," he said gently.

"No! It's here, Gibbs, I'm going to find it," she said and started pacing.

Gibbs looked at the woman in front of him; a completely different person than before this started. The same determination that was present the first weeks they were investigating this case was still there, but it was more frantic now. Fueled by something he couldn't seem to understand. Her desperation had increased ten-fold since they missed him in Detroit, as had her exhaustion. Gibbs had seen Kate run on almost no sleep before, but this is different. This was the lack of sleep of someone whose adrenaline had long been expended and was about to hit the wall.

"Kate," he said again, but she ignored him, standing at the foot of the bed, staring down at the pictures of beaten bodies. This was no good for her.

"Something…," she whispered.

Carefully he leaned over and grabbed the nearest file off the bed, closing it. That got her attention.

"What the hell are you doing?" she growled, finally looked at him, her eyes gleaming with anger.

He didn't say a word, just picked up the next file, closed it and put it on top of the first.

"Gibbs, God dammit! Stop." She came around the bed, standing between him and the third file.

Now he looked at her, forced by her close proximity, "This isn't a game anymore, Kate."

"You think I don't know that?" fury ran free on her face.

"I'm not talking about the case, Kate. I'm talking about you not taking care of yourself."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "I know how to…"

"Obviously you don't, or else you wouldn't be wide awake acting like someone on speed rather than sleeping when you can. You know how this goes, Kate; you sleep when you can, you eat when you can, because you don't know the next time you will see your bed or make time for food."

"I can't sleep."

"Because you haven't tried."

"Don't presume to tell me what I have or haven't done Gibbs, you don't know me," she hissed.

"I know you well enough, Kate, to know this isn't you. What the hell is going on?"

"Trying to catch the bad guy, isn't that what we do?"

"We also try not to kill ourselves doing it."

She stared at him for a moment, "I'll be fine, promise. I know my own limits."

"Get some sleep and I'll believe you."

"I'm not tired."

Now he was just getting frustrated, "I don't care."

"Oh, get off it, Gibbs. Like you have never gone as far as you could to catch someone."

"I'm not going to deny it, Kate, but I've learned since then." He took one step closer to her, "And I refuse to watch you fall into the same hole I did. Please, Caitlin, for me."

The use of her given name gave her pause. "I can't…," she looked down as she said it in a soft voice. "I can't…"

"Yes, you can."

She looked up at him, and there was something in her eyes Gibbs couldn't identify. Anger, resentment, confusion, all that and more.

"You don't get it, Gibbs." She stepped away from him and walked to the end of the bed, turning to face him. Her voice dripped with frustration and anger, "Every time I close my eyes now, I see him. When I dream, he's there, taunting me, just outside my grasp. I can't see his face, but I know who it is. I can't stop him from killing these women, and he knows it!"

It had all come out in a burst, and once it was out, her body gave out and she sat heavily on the edge of the bed. Gibbs stood for a moment, honestly unsure how to handle this. Kate was the first female agent he'd had under his command for more than a six month time span. They usually bolted by now because of Tony's comments or his own aloofness. But in just over a year she had put Tony firmly in his place while still allowing him some freedom to be Tony around her, and had pulled Gibbs out of his shell a bit. Not much, but any was an improvement. She'd caused Gibbs to soften a bit, show his human side a little more often. And now, he felt some instinct to protect her from herself. He couldn't allow her to slip into oblivion while he was just coming out of it.

Slowly he approached, sitting carefully on the bed next to her, allowing their shoulders to touch. She was staring intently at the carpeting, seeming to focus on the tan Berber, inspecting every thread.

He was trying to figure out what to say when her voice stopped him,

"This time…the last dream, I was the victim. Terrified, unsure and frustrated with myself." She paused and gave him a sideways glance, "I've never had a nightmare, Gibbs."

"Its not easy, Kate. But you can't avoid sleep because of it, that'll only making it worse."

"I know, I know." She scrubbed her face with her hands, and wiped away the tears that had started to fall. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

She looked at him, looking lost and confused. He couldn't stop himself, his right arm snaked out of its own accord and wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her into him. Initially she froze at his touch, but at his gentle insistence, gave in and leaned against his strong shoulder.

Gibbs turned and talked into the top of her head, "There's nothing wrong with you, Kate. Nothing at all."

"Then….why am I acting like this? I don't even recognize myself anymore, Gibbs. It scares me."

"You're a very good agent, Kate. I'd have no one else covering my six. But this is one of those cases that everyone eventually has. The one case where you push yourself _so _hard, that nothing matters except catching the perp. You change without even realizing it, sometimes it's subtly, and sometimes…it's not. Every agent has that case." He paused for a second, carefully considering his next words. "This is your case. The one that defines you, and I think this time the one thing that usually works for you, your empathy for victims, especially female ones, is working against you."

He felt her nod, but continued to hold her against him, unwilling to admit he enjoyed the feeling of her warm body against his. For Gibbs it had been far too long since that had happened, especially with someone he actually cared about. And he did care about her, more than he let on. He'd seen something in her eyes the first time he met her and knew this woman would be a challenge. And she hasn't disappointed him; but then again, Gibbs always loved a challenge.

Lost in thought, he didn't realize she had fallen asleep against him until he noticed that her breathing had evened out. Sighing, he carefully looked behind him. The bed was pretty free and clear. Moving carefully so as not to wake her, he got out from under her and eased her pliant body back onto the bed. That accomplished, he cleaned up the rest of the files and put them in a neat pile on the desk.

She hadn't moved one inch while he worked, so he dared one more action. Moving to the other double bed in her room, he picked up the comforter and covered her with it. Walking back to the door, he shut off the light and gave her one more look before heading into his room. He elected to leave both doors open…just in case.

Crawling back into his own bed, he looked at the clock, he still had another solid six hours to sleep. He just hoped that now his own dreams wouldn't be nightmares.

tbc………………….leave a tip, er…review.


	6. Home, Sweet Home

Title: Shaitan

Author: CSIphile/Redwing

AN1: Seriously you guys, the review love is…fantastic! You guys are the best! I never thought I would get this many reviews for my little NCIS crossover fic. Please, keep it up! This one will now be posted on Sundays to allow for my all NCIS K/G fic 'Sometimes They Return'.

AN2: As for the above mentioned new fic…it's not getting as much love and feels lonely. Feel free to give it a try, everyone's favorite terrorist returns. And leave a review!

* * *

Chapter 6: Home, Sweet Home

SVU Squadroom

6:50 am

Elliot walked into the shop the next day surprised to hear Gibbs' crew up in the crib. He looked at his watch - it wasn't quite 7 AM. Elliot made a beeline for the coffee maker; he and Olivia had been up much later than he'd anticipated. Pouring the liquid into a mug, he was startled when his partner sidled up to him, holding out her own cup. He gave her a look, but filled hers too.

"When did you get here?" he asked softly. When he'd left this morning she had been in the shower. Despite the distraction of her naked in the bathroom, Elliot had managed to leave and make good time getting in.

"Not even ten minutes before you. I've been helping our friends get acquainted with the city so they can do some interviews today. They want to speak with the family alone since they are right here in Brooklyn." She put some sugar in her coffee and walked back to their desks.

"Ahhh, gotcha. You're awfully chipper this morning," he said as they sat down.

"Huh, wonder why?" she gave him a sly smile.

"I noticed the kid talking to you last night, he had that look on his face."

"What look?" she asked innocently and took a sip of her coffee.

He waved one hand around, "You know, that look guys give you when they're interested."

"I had _no_ idea."

Now he pursed his lips at her and shook his head, "Of course, you did. Sorry."

"It's okay, El. Just don't go getting all macho on me."

"Who, me?" he said in his most innocent voice.

She tilted her head at him and sighed. Her phone ringing interrupted a comeback. "SVU, Benson."

Elliot watched as she listened to the caller, and then paled. "You're kidding. No, no we'll be right there. Thanks, Briscoe." She hung up the phone and looked at Elliot. "There's been another one."

"Damn…"

She didn't even acknowledge him, by the time he could, she was halfway up the stairs and he quickly followed her. Gibbs was just getting ready to head out and talk to Lt Williams' parents when Olivia came bounding up the stairs.

"There's been another murder," Olivia stated.

Kate looked at her emotionless, "What?"

"Guy at the marina found the body of what looks like a female Marine on one of the docks this morning."

Kate looked to Gibbs, "It's over, we missed him."

He gave her a tight expression, "Not yet. Okay, we still have to talk to Williams' parents. Kate, Tony you head out to Brooklyn." He looked up at Olivia and Elliot, "If you don't mind, I'll come with you guys."

HUDSON MARINA

8 AM

Gibbs crouched over the body and snapped on a pair of latex gloves. The uniform was definitely Marine Corps issue; it appeared to be another lieutenant colonel. Lifting her coat slightly, he saw what he expected: another carving, just like all the rest. He stood up and looked for Elliot and Olivia who were interviewing witnesses. He spotted Elliot first, standing by himself, looking out over the water.

"Elliot," he called out, walking over to him. "Our guy, same carving. Damn it."

Gibbs looked around at the crowd. He doubted their man was here, he wasn't that brave. His daring move was to leave the victims in a heavily trafficked area so they would be found. Gibbs noticed Olivia walking toward them and he and Elliot move to meet her halfway.

She pulled out her notes and started reading, "Mr. Bridge came in early to get a start on sailing for the day and he found her lying on the dock next to his slip. He said he thought it was a dog at first, but when he realized it was a woman he called 911. Doesn't remember seeing anyone or anything suspicious."

A frustrated Gibbs rubbed one hand along his forehead and walked over to the CSU guys. "Anything?"

"Nothing yet, sir. But you might want to check if the ME has anything," the technician replied.

Gibbs nodded and walked back to the body, finding the detectives talking to a tall black woman, the ME he supposed.

"Looks to be strangled like the last one. I'd put time of death between midnight and 2 AM, but I won't know more until the autopsy."

"Thanks, Warner," Elliot said as they removed the body.

The three stood for a moment before Elliot spoke, "We might still be able to catch him."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Gibbs said and once more observed the skyline.

HOME OF MR. AND MRS. JACOB WILLIAMS

QUEENS

8 AM

"Mrs. Williams, did you have any contact with your daughter the day of her death?" Kate asked.

The older woman leaned more into her husband before answering, "Please, call me Grace. Yes, actually, she called as they left the bar. She wanted to let me know she would be staying with her friend, Lisa, that night in the city rather than come home. She was so excited about getting a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel that she and some friends from the base in New London went out."

"Who is Lisa? Is she also stationed with your daughter?" Again Kate questioned in a soft tone while Tony made notes.

"Oh, no. Lisa is a childhood friend, lives in midtown." This time Mr. Williams answered.

Kate nodded, "And that was the last time either of you had contact with her?"

They both nodded.

"Did Allison mention if she thought someone was following her? Or seemed to take an interest?" Tony asked gently.

Grace gave him an odd look before nodding, "Not following her but she mentioned at the bar she thought one guy was going to ask her out. Said he sat at the next table the whole time and seemed really interested in her. She was a little disappointed he didn't talk to her."

Tony and Kate shared a glance and she spoke, "Did she happen to describe this man?"

"Not really, just said he was good looking. Dirty blonde like her brother with green eyes, that was about it. Her friends might remember."

"Can we have their names?" Kate asked.

"Sure," the older woman replied, taking Tony's notepad and writing down three names.

"Thank you for your time. We're very sorry for your loss. If you think of anything else, no matter how small, please call me," Kate handed the woman her card and stood, the parents following her actions.

"You know, I do recall her saying he had a Marine tattoo, you know – that bird, on his right forearm. She remembered thinking it must have been painful, but Marines are tough."

Kate nodded again, "That'll help. Thank you."

As she and Tony headed out to the car, Kate pulled out her phone and made a call to the Naval base the women were stationed at, ensuring that they would be there for the next couple hours. The second call was to Gibbs as they pulled away from the Williams' home.

"Gibbs," his voice came through filled with static.

"It's Kate. We might have a lead. Allison thought a guy in a bar was interested in her the night she disappeared. Apparently he had a Marine tattoo on his right forearm. Tony and I are hunting down the women she was with at the Naval Base in New London to get a description."

"Good. Very good."

"We are heading out now; it's a two hour drive. Let you know how we do."

"Good."

She frowned at his short answers, "What's going on?"

"Nothing, but this body is one of his. Same carving."

"Damn…," she hissed under her breath.

"Call me when you're back in the city."

"Will do." She closed the phone and looked at Tony who was concentrating on the highway situation so they didn't end up in Maine. She called Abby and the lab tech sent directions to her Palm Pilot, so hopefully there would be no unneeded detours.

"What'd boss man have to say?" he asked.

"The woman at the marina is definitely from our guy. Same carving, same cause of death."

"TOD" he asked, easily maneuvering into traffic.

She shrugged, "Won't know until the autopsy."

He nodded and turned onto the Triborough Bridge. "I meant to say earlier, you look rested, Kate."

"Thanks. I finally got some sleep last night," she said and turned to look out the window.

Tony dared to turn and look at her. It wasn't what she'd said; it was how she said it. Like he was missing something important.

"Glad you did. I was starting to worry about you," his voice was sincere.

"Thanks, Tony."

"If you need to talk, Kate…," he let the implication hang.

"I know," she gave him a small smile and they lapsed into silence the rest of the ride.

ME'S OFFICE

ONE POLICE PLAZA

2 PM

Gibbs stared down at the body of Lt. Col Carmen Strand. She was in much the same condition as the others. Badly beaten, raped and a circle with an X in it carved into her chest. Her physical description was also the same as the others, medium height with dark hair and eyes.

Warner walked into the room and greeted the NCIS agent and two detectives. "Well, it's the same as before. Badly beaten, raped and then manually strangled to death. I've got your needle puncture mark on the right side of the neck." She moved to the hands. "But this time we have something new. Skin cells under the nails. I sent it off for DNA."

"If it's like the pubic hair we found, it won't match anything," Gibbs said and sighed.

Warner just shrugged, "Other than that, nothing probative."

"Of course not," Gibbs muttered. His phone chose that moment to ring. "Gibbs," he said gruffly into it.

Elliot watched the expression on the other man's face soften significantly as he spoke to the person on the other end of the phone. Elliot concentrated a little bit to hear his end, curious.

"…Nice job….Yeah, okay... good. What's the name again?…Uh huh. Good Kate, I'll grab it and head over." Then a long pause and Elliot swore a smile almost cracked on the agent's face, "I said you could shoot him, Kate. Just don't do it in NYPD's car, no need to leave them the mess….Uh huh. Yeah, see you soon."

He closed the phone and turned to the detectives, "They have a sketch of the guy who was watching Lt. Col Williams at the bar the night before she died. She faxed it to the precinct and to NCIS before they left New London, and now they are stuck in traffic on the 278."

"What bar?" Elliot asked as they headed upstairs.

"Air Bar?" he said with some confusion.

Elliot looked at Olivia. "Yeah, we know the place. Let's grab the sketch and head over."

AIR BAR

2:30 PM

Gibbs hung back from the two detectives. They had indicated they knew the place and he figured it would be better for them to ask the questions. He stood close enough to hear the conversation and it didn't start off well at all.

The manager looked at Elliot and Olivia with distaste, "Oh, you two again?"

Elliot looked confused by her hostility, "Obviously you remember."

"How could I forget? How can I help you detectives?"

Elliot pulled the fax from his coat pocket and showed the woman, "Do you remember this man being in here two nights ago? He would have had this tattoo?" Elliot pulled out another sketch.

She looked at the picture and frowned slightly, "Yeah, actually. He sat alone at the same table all night, seemed rather interested in a group of military gals."

Olivia looked surprise, "How did you know they were military?"

"They used their Marine IDs as identification," she paused and held up a hand. "We made sure they were 21. The owner is a big military person and bought them a round of drinks, practically announced to the whole bar who they were. The girls didn't pay for a lot of their drinks that night."

Elliot grabbed another picture out of his pocket, this time a military photo, "Was this one of the girls?"

"Yup, sure was. Pretty girl, was excited about a promotion or something."

Olivia looked up from taking notes, "Wait, did he seem interested in the girls before or after everyone knew they were military?"

She paused in thought, "I'm pretty sure after, he didn't seem to take much interest before. He even bought them a round after it was announced."

Elliot nodded, "How did he pay?"

"Cash all night, didn't even run a tab, he paid by the soda."

"He didn't drink?"

"Not a drop. The only alcohol he bought was for them."

"When did he leave?" Olivia asked.

"He left right after the girls actually. I remember that when they left, half the bar said goodbye. It was after that I realized he was gone."

Now it was Olivia's turn to nod. "Thanks, if you think of anything else," she said, handing over her card.

The manager nodded and the detectives turned to Gibbs and they walked out of the bar in silence, each of them contemplating the new information.

When they entered the stationhouse Gibbs walked to the board and taped up the sketch Kate had done. Then he stood back and stared, Elliot joined him.

"It doesn't seem like your guy was at the base. Sounds to me that he found Allison at the Air Bar."

"Yeah…," Gibbs responded.

"That's not his MO," Elliot said and stared at the map, taking a step toward it. "And Warner is sure it's the same guy, not a copycat." It was a statement.

Gibbs watched with interest as the detective put one finger on New London and followed the coastline to New York, stopping and tapping lightly.

"We are ignoring something here; there _isn't _a naval base in New York. We haven't had a one since Staten Island closed in '94. Though we get plenty of military visitors with New London being so close. He wasn't here to kill, Gibbs, he stumbled onto those girls, onto Alison and Carmen."

Suddenly a light turned on in Gibbs eyes. "You're right. All the other cities had military bases _in_ them, not hours away. The close call outside Newport might have scared him enough to stop him for a bit, he wasn't ready to be caught. He wasn't here to kill…"

Elliot finished the thought, "He _lives_ here."

"Or has family here, he's familiar with the area and I doubt a serial killer would take a vacation. After we nearly had him, he went to the safest place he knew, were the temptation would be lowest without a base nearby, though obviously he forgot about New London. Elliot…he ran home."

tbc……………………………


	7. A Break

Title: Shaitan

Author: CSIphile/Redwing

AN1: Wow you guys….the number of reviews is truly overwhelming. I'm so appreciative, you have no idea. Please keep it up…..much love.

Sorry I'm not more wordy today, I'm already late on my post and don't want to hold it up by trying to be witty or something…;-)

* * *

Chapter 7: A Break

SVU Squad Room

Elliot put out an APB on the sketch of their suspect and Gibbs called his Washington office. Apparently they were running the sketch through the military database, but with the added information of a New York resident it might shorten the search. Of course, they didn't know if he was a current resident, or had been in the past, but it was the only lead they had.

Gibbs was sitting not so patiently up in the crib as he'd done all he could for the moment. The APB was out, and he had Abby working on the facial recognition software. Major Strands' family was not located in the New York area and he had elected to forgo an interview for now. Gibbs finally had the feeling that they were close to this guy.

Methodically he started going through the evidence in his head, but didn't get far before Kate's voice rang out from down below. "No, next time I'm driving, no discussions."

"Aww, come on, Kate!" Tony's voice followed hers.

"Forget it, DiNozzo, because if you drive again, I _will_ have to shoot you and leave your corpse on the freeway."

"You wouldn't do that," he paused. "Would you? Kate?"

Her exasperated sigh preceded footsteps on the stairs heading to his location. For once Gibbs was glad to hear the two of them arguing, it meant that the Kate he remembered was starting to come back. She stopped suddenly at the top of the stairs, looking surprised to see Gibbs sitting there.

"We have a lead," he said with a ghost of a smile.

"You're kidding!" Tony exclaimed from behind her.

He gave Tony a look and quickly relayed the conversation from the Air Bar and what they had concluded from it. "The detectives have an APB out on him based on your sketch, and all of New York's finest are looking. I have Abby running the sketch through the database. We limited the search to those with New York City and Long Island addresses for now, including only those who were dishonorably discharged and in our suspected age range. Abby's using 90% markers on the sketch to allow for witness mistakes."

"That could still be a lot of people boss," Tony said, tapping a pencil softly on the table in front of him.

"It's a start."

The other two nodded at him. "Why would he change MO though?" Tony asked, putting the pencil down at Gibbs' annoyed expression.

Gibbs thought about that for a minute, he had been contemplating that very thing since that morning. "That I don't know, then again he didn't come here to kill. Maybe he saw her and couldn't stop himself, and since this is his hometown he felt…safe."

They all were silent for a minute.

Gibbs broke the silence by looking at his watch and sighing, "You're off the clock for a couple hours."

"What?" they asked simultaneously.

"There isn't anything else we can do until Abby gets us some names, which could be a couple hours. It's 4:30 now, I want you're asses back in here by 6:30. We need to go over everything with this new information." He waved his hand at them and Tony was up in a second and heading down the stairs, a belated "Thanks, boss" wafting up after him.

"Leave your phone on, DiNozzo! And don't wander too far!" Gibbs hollered and was met with an affirmative response.

Kate started to head down herself before Gibbs' hand wrapped around her upper arm, pausing her movements. "Kate, wanna grab something to eat?"

"I'm fine, Gibbs, thanks." She started to pull away, but his grip didn't give.

"Come on, even if it's just a hot dog on the corner." He gave her that just barely there smile, "Please."

She pursed her lips at him and narrowed her eyes, "What's going on?"

He took that as a yes. "Nothing, I'm hungry, let's go." He released her arm and gently prodded her down the stairs.

Reluctantly she agreed and they told Olivia and Elliot what was going on as they walked out. Apparently Tony had disappeared with Munch and Fin who had been heading out for food. The detectives nodded as they passed.

Elliot looked at the backs of the NCIS agents and then looked at Olivia, "Something is going on there."

"Agreed," she said and hung up the phone with the 2-2. They thought they had someone matching the description, but the guy was lacking a tattoo. She scratched her forehead with the tip of one thumb, and looked at Elliot who had a weird expression on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"They have the right idea, let's get out of here for a couple hours."

"Chinese?" she asked.

He nodded and the two clocked out, heading for their favorite restaurant.

MANN'S CHINESE RESTAURANT

MIDTOWN

Olivia watched in amusement as Elliot struggled with the chopsticks. It didn't seem to matter how many times they ate Chinese, the man could not master the art of eating with the wooden instruments. He typically tried for about five minutes before giving up and using the provided fork. But today his patience seemed to last slightly longer.

"Elliot," she said between bites, using her chop sticks with ease, "give it up and use a fork."

"I will win, Liv."

She raised one eyebrow at him as a shrimp slid down the sticks and back onto his plate. "Uh huh…"

He looked at her exasperated and picked up the fork, "Perhaps not today."

"Good call, we only have an hour to eat."

"You're hilarious, Benson."

She smiled mischievously at him, "That's why you love me." As soon as the words left her mouth she stopped eating and looked at him like a deer in headlights. It wasn't what she meant. Exactly.

"I….that's not what I meant. I don't…," she sighed and gave him a helpless expression. "Damn it."

He just smiled at her as she fumbled. "Liv, it's ok, relax. I don't think we have to step on eggshells."

"It's just…."

"It's too soon, I know. We agreed we didn't want this going to fast…well faster than it already has," he grinned at her and took another bite of shrimp.

She nodded. "I know, its just hard to express what you mean to me without…going fast."

He nodded in understanding, "We love each other, Liv, let's just admit that now and work on being in love later."

She gave him a lopsided grin, "You may not be able to use chopsticks, but you're a smart man, Stabler."

"I know…," he said, winking at her.

She merely groaned and they continued eating in silence.

CENTRAL PARK

Gibbs watched as Kate ate her hot dog like it was the last time she would ever see one.

"Hungry?" he asked with a smile.

They were sitting on one of the benches in Central Park, eating and thinking about the case. Even away from the station it was never far from their minds.

"More than I thought," she said and finished it off, wiping her hands on a napkin.

There was silence between them for a few minutes before Gibbs spoke, his voice actually tentative, "I want you to be careful, Kate."

She turned to look at him, "Huh?"

"This guy, he's seen you before, knows you're after him. I don't want him getting a glimpse and trying again," his tone was serious.

She scoffed at him, "Gibbs, the only reason he went after me was because he thought I was a Marine."

"Yeah, well. He seems to be throwing out his motive, and you never know." He grabbed her trash and put it in the can next to him. "Humor me."

She smiled at him, "Is that concern I sense Gibbs?"

He just looked at her before reaching out and just barely touching her hand, "Just because I'm a bastard doesn't mean I don't care."

She smiled, "I know, and thank you."

"For what?" he asked, increasing the grip on her hand slightly.

"The other night. I'm sorry I unloaded all that on you, but I finally got some sleep."

"Good," his voice was soft and they didn't speak for several minutes. Finally he looked at his watch, "Come on, let's head back."

They walked back into the station and found everyone else had returned as well. Elliot and Olivia were leaning against her desk standing very close, Gibbs noted, watching in amusement as Tony spoke.

Gibbs leaned into Kate, "I don't think that's a good sign, they're listening to Tony."

She stifled a smile and they approached the group. When Elliot noticed their arrival, he smiled slightly. "We apologize in advance."

Gibbs looked at him confused. "Why? What did he do?" indicating Tony with his hand.

"Ohh, it's not what he did, it's what was done to him. A couple hours alone with Munch and he's been converted."

"Converted?" Gibbs asked and turned to Tony.

"Boss! Did you know there was no moon landing? It was all done on a soundstage, and in the desert…"

Gibbs put up one hand, stopping the younger agent, "I don't want to hear it DiNozzo. Let's go." Gibbs indicated the crib with his hand and started up the stairs, with Kate, Tony and the SVU crew behind him.

SVU CRIB

10 PM

Several hours later they were no closer to an answer when the ME arrived, a fresh DNA report in her hands. "The skin under Major Strands' fingernails weren't your perp's. It was Allison Williams," she stated, handing the file to Elliot.

Each person took a minute to process this before Olivia spoke, "Any chance it's a transfer from the killer?"

The ME shook her head, "Not likely, transfer under fingernails is rare. There wasn't a lot of tissue, it looks like Carmen just scraped Allison, not gouged her."

"Okay, thanks Melinda," Olivia said and the ME left them with a new piece of information to consider.

"He held them together at some point," Elliot remarked, handing the file to Gibbs.

"Couldn't have been long, there would have only been about a five hour overlap between the time of each abduction and murder," Gibbs said, looking briefly at the report. "He might have another girl already."

Gibbs looked at Kate, who had the expression of someone who had been recently kicked in the stomach. "He's escalating," she stated simply. Gibbs nodded and she ran her fingers through her hair.

The silence was broken by the shrill ring of Gibbs' cell phone. Quickly he snapped it open and stood, walking away from the group. "Nice job, Abby. Yeah, you have the number right? Good, good," he paused and smiled. "Sure, Abs, go ahead, you deserve it."

He turned back to the group. "Abby found nine former Marines that fit our criteria and matched Kate's sketch. She's faxing the list of addresses."

Ten minutes later they had the fax in hand.

"If we break into three groups we can go faster," Elliot said, eying Fin, who was still at his desk completing paperwork.

"Agreed," Gibbs said. "One NCIS officer and one NYPD per. Kate, you're with Elliot, Tony with," he looked at Tony's hopeful face and made a quick decision, "…Fin and Olivia, I'll come with you. Sound good?"

All the members nodded and quickly split the list by location, each heading in different directions in the city.

THE BRONX

163RD ST

Tony got into the passenger seat and sighed. Two addresses, and nothing, both times the men bore a strong resemblance, but one had been out of town on business which had been verified with a boarding pass, the other didn't have a tattoo.

"One left," Tony said and Fin started the engine.

"Hopefully someone else is having better luck than we are," Fin replied.

Tony nodded and made a note on his sheet. "So, what's it like working with Munch? I heard rumors about his theories, but never heard 'em in person until today. He's got such great ideas…"

"None of which I need repeated," the other man commented, staring at Tony with an expression that said in no uncertain terms that Tony shouldn't open his mouth.

"Understood," Tony said and read off the last address.

BROOKLYN

EAST 28TH STREET

Gibbs pulled his jacket tighter around his body and shivered lightly in the cool air. He and Olivia had just left their second stop, with no luck. It had been the man's parents' house, and his residence until three months ago when he was transferred to Hawaii by his employer.

He made a note in his notebook. "We'll have to check that he actually has been in Hawaii, but I think it's a safe bet he's not the guy since his parents insist that he held no grudge against the Marines."

Olivia nodded and they got in the car, "Who's next?"

"Jason Wiser," he said and rattled off the address.

Soon they were on the road, heading toward the last address. Gibbs decided to break the silence with small talk. His version anyway.

"Must be hard, working for SVU," he remarked.

"It's not easy, but I wouldn't want to do anything else."

"I heard the shelf life of an SVU detective is two years, how long have you and Elliot been there?"

She made a right turn then answered him, "I've been with the unit for six and a half years, Elliot a little longer than that."

Gibbs whistled, "That's a long time to look at what you do."

She shrugged.

"It's also a long time to have the same partner, that's got to be a record almost."

A pained expression crossed her face before being replaced with a smile, "Almost…but I don't think anyone else would put up with us."

He nodded again, "I understand that."

Now she really laughed, "Ahhh, DiNozzo. He's quite the character."

"That's one way of saying it."

"If he drives you crazy, why does he still work for you?"

"Tony may be a pain in my ass, but he's still a good detective. And besides, now he has someone to put him in line a little."

"Kate."

"Yeah, Kate."

Olivia turned to him at his tone and wondered, not for the first time since she'd met the NCIS agents, if something was going on between them. Then again, she had a feeling that Gibbs didn't break the rules, and that would most assuredly be breaking several of them.

The third and final house on the list came into view and Olivia stopped the car.

"Here's to hoping," she said and opened her door.

COLLEGE POINT, QUEENS

7TH AVE

Elliot knocked on the door for the second time, annoyed. This was the last address on their list and he was determined to come away with something useful. When no one answered, he and Kate walked to the side door and peered in. The house looked abandoned, almost no furniture adorned the rooms. They returned to the front where Elliot pounded one more time.

"Excuse me!" a high voice called out. Apparently his pounding had gotten the neighbor's attention. Elliot and Kate spun around to see a woman in her late 40s hanging out the window of the house next door. "What are you doing?"

Elliot took a few steps forward and pulled out his badge, "NYPD, ma'am."

The woman nodded and looked at Kate suspiciously, "And you?"

She copied Elliot's movement, also pulling out her badge, "NCIS."

The woman frowned and tilted her head, "That like CSI?"

"Not exactly, ma'am. I'm a federal agent."

That seemed to placate her and Elliot took a few more steps toward her, "Does Richard Hamilton still live here, ma'am?"

"Last I knew, and stop calling me ma'am. My name is Karen."

"Okay, Karen. When was the last time you saw him?"

"He was just here the other day, but not for very long, he went in the house for about 30 minutes and left. He was carrying a large bag with him."

"Really?" Kate asked. "About how big?"

"Good sized, looked like a really big duffle bag like you see those military guys walking around with."

Kate and Elliot looked at each other. He held out the sketch with a drivers license photo attached, "This the man you saw?"

The woman grabbed the papers and pulled them inside where the light allowed her to see better. "Yeah, like I said, Richard was here."

"Excellent, thank you, Karen."

"You're welcome," she said and closed the window.

"You think he's been holding women in there?" Kate asked.

"I think it's a distinct possibility. And if so, there might be someone here." He walked back to the door and opened the screen, then slowly turned the handle on the main door, surprised when it opened.

"Elliot…"

"The door was unlocked, Kate. That makes it fair game."

She nodded and pulled her sidearm, holding it tightly against her side as she followed Elliot into the darkened house. He tried the first light switch he saw, with no luck. Both of them pulled flashlights from their pockets and Elliot continued to lead the way. The door had opened into a vestibule of sorts, and through that was a hallway leading to the living room and kitchen, and to the right were stairs. Elliot went left and they swept the living and dining rooms quickly, heading back through the kitchen. They found nothing. Most surfaces where covered with a light film of dust, except a path from the front door to the stairs going to the second level.

Once they were sure the first floor was clear, they started up the stairs, with Elliot still in the lead and Kate watching their backs. She was starting to get a weird feeling when three quarters of the way up, Elliot suddenly stopped.

Kate was about to ask what was going on, when his voice beat her to it. "Kate…," he said slowly.

"Yeah."

"Run."

Without hesitation, she started down the stairs and could hear Elliot right behind her. Kate ran as fast as she could, just reaching outside front door when an explosion propelled her body the rest of the way. She hit something hard, causing a whoosh of air to expel from her lungs before slumping to the ground in pain. She could hear Elliot somewhere to her right, calling her name, then Olivia's before he was silent.

"Elliot...," she managed to croak out. She opened her eyes slightly and gasped when in her line of sight was the man they had been looking for hunched above her, staring at her with interest.

The last thing Kate heard before falling into unconsciousness was hearing their quarry's voice, "Well, hello, Agent."

tbc……………………


	8. Aftershocks

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

Disclaimers ect on the first chapter.

AN1: Thank you guys YET again for all the reviews, I LOVE to read them so keep it up!

Sorry this chapter is late too, man Im getting bad about this, aren't I? RL has just been such an intrusion. No more lateness though…promise.

* * *

Chapter 8: Aftershocks

Brooklyn

Olivia and Gibbs were talking when suddenly she held up a hand to shush him and tilted her head. It took Gibbs a moment to realize what was going on, and when he did and tried to concentrate on the words flying through the radio at such a fevered pitch he barely kept up.

"We have a house explosion in College Point….Seventh Avenue….NYPD reported in the home at the time of…."

Olivia nearly swerved off the road as she spoke to him. "What street are they on?"

Gibbs was one step ahead of her, however, and was flipping to the page with Kate and Elliot's addresses on it. Quickly he scanned with his finger, coming to a stop at the last one, "121-11 7th Ave," he said slowly and felt the car accelerate as Olivia turned on the red dash light.

Multi-tasking to the extreme, Olivia turned at the next street and picked up the radio, "Dispatch, this is Detective Olivia Benson with the 1-6 SVU, please confirm the College Point explosion address."

After a few tense moments the voice came back, "Confirm, Benson, the address is 121-11 7th Avenue."

At the same instant both Gibbs' and Olivia's stomachs dropped and not another word was spoken on the way to Queens.

COLLEGE POINT

The first thing she felt upon waking was warmth on her right side, then panic and pain, and finally in the distance she heard sirens. Kate snapped her eyes open and found herself looking up at a tree. She had come to a violent stop on a small patch of grass between the sidewalk and the street. Lying on her back in the soggy grass, she could see their sedan to her left and a large oak tree at her head. Slowly the pieces began fitting back together and she tried to sit up, but was met with a wave of nausea that pushed her back down.

"Elliot," she called out into the darkness instead. "Elliot!" The last she had heard from him was the detective calling his partner's name.

This time Kate rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up on all fours, tamping down the nausea. The house they had just barely escaped was consumed by flames. Kate had no doubt that they would be dead had Elliot not noticed something was wrong.

Looking up slowly she noticed emergency services barely a block away. When she moved her head, a stab of pain radiated through it. As if of its on volition, her hand made its way to her temple, pressing on the source of pain; she felt the stickiness and could now smell copper. Pulling her hand away, she confirmed her suspicion, it was soaked in red. Blood. Her blood. _At least I'm conscious_, she thought, _which is more than I might be able to say about Elliot__._

Inspecting the small front yard of the house, she found him; a body lying prone, curled on his right side, facing her.

"Elliot," she whispered. Now the sirens seemed closer, much closer.

Kate was pulling herself up when a wave of dizziness hit and she started to sink to the ground, stopped only by the arms of a firefighter wrapping around her. Once more she slid into unconsciousness.

When Olivia came to a stop mere inches from another police car, Gibbs honestly thought they were going to crash into the vehicle. Once the car was safely in park they both jumped out, taking in the blaze the firefighters where attempting to contain. They could feel the heat in the street, and they both wondered if their friends were alive to tell the tale. Quickly they each scanned the chaos on the front lawn.

Gibbs found Kate first as she was closer to the street. An EMT was bent over her still body. For a moment panic ran through him. _What if she's dead_, he wondered. He approached the paramedic, who was opening her eyelids and flashing a light into her eyes. Gibbs took a moment to look at her. The skin over her left temple was torn open with a nearly two-inch gash. There was blood flowing freely from the wound, matting her hair and covering one side of her face with a sickly red tint. Other than that, she appeared to have sustained no other external injuries that he could see.

"Pupils are reactive but not equal, probable concussion," said the EMT to his partner who was squatting across from him.

"How is she?" Gibbs asked and somewhat startled the paramedic.

"And who are you?" he asked.

"Agent Gibbs, NCIS. I'm her boss," he managed to keep his voice steady despite the fear invading his entire body.

"She's stable for now. Concussion for sure, but we won't know what else until we get her to the hospital." He turned to his partner and indicated for a gurney. Quickly, the two paramedics lifted her up and turned her slightly to inspect her back for further injuries. Other than a dirty shirt, she appeared fine. Appeared. Gibbs had seen plenty of agents look fine one second but drop the next with internal damage.

Tentatively, Gibbs reached out and touched her hand, just to confirm to himself that she was indeed warm and alive. She was.

As they headed toward the second ambulance, he noticed Fin and Tony pull up and the first ambulance pull away with Olivia and Elliot in it.

Olivia was barely aware of the commotion going on around her. She had found Elliot mere seconds after Gibbs noticed Kate and was at his side in a second. Three paramedics surrounded the detective, speaking quickly and in medical jargon that Olivia was only barely aware of.

"How is he?" she asked as the words flew by.

"Unconscious, probable concussion, and a broken left arm."

Olivia looked down and noticed for the first time that his arm was bent at an unnatural angle. She felt the familiar tingling of nausea in her throat. Olivia wasn't a squeamish person, but something about it happening her partner, her friend, made this different.

The EMT speaking snapped her out of the daze, "We are transporting to New York Memorial, Detective."

"I'm coming with you." It was a statement. The paramedic gave her a look, but didn't challenge her command. Within minutes they were in the ambulance and racing down the street.

Tony spoke first as he stared at the still burning hulk of a house, "What happened, boss?"

Gibbs kept one eye on Kate as he spoke; he had already informed the paramedics he would be accompanying them. He'd left little room for debate. "My best guess is a bomb." He pressed the keys to Olivia's department issued sedan into the younger man's hands. "My kit is in the trunk. I don't care what you have to do, or how long you are out here, how many CSUs you call in, or even if you call Quantico for more. I want every last piece of that bomb, every shred of evidence, witness statements, the works and I want answers. Richard Hamilton is now number one on my shit list and I want his head on a platter. Are we clear?"

"Crystal, boss," Tony said. As Gibbs walked away, he heard Tony's voice once more, "How is she?"

"I don't know Tony, I'll call you," his voice was soft.

"Thanks, boss," he said and turned to Fin as the two started to discuss a plan of attack.

The ride to Memorial was the longest of her life, but thankfully, halfway there Elliot had regained consciousness. Since then he had been in and out a few times, each time giving Olivia a small smile. Suddenly, she knew how Elliot must have felt those weeks ago when she was injured. Thankfully, this time it appeared that he would not be as bad off as she was.

She had managed a call to Cragen who promised that he and Munch would be at the hospital as soon as they could. Just then the ambulance slowed and finally came to a stop at the emergency room doors. Several doctors came out and the paramedics helped to push his gurney into a trauma room, she slid in seemingly unnoticed. Olivia watched as medical personnel swarmed around him, moving in perfect rhythm with each other, never getting in each others' way. Medical jargon she didn't understand flew by and she watched in a daze.

After perhaps 20 minutes, one of the doctors stepped away and approached her, putting one hand on her upper arm. She vaguely recognized the woman as one they had encountered on one of their many cases. Olivia's mind tried to recall her name, but failed.

"Detective, I'm Doctor Maxwell, we've met before."

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry," Olivia's eyes danced between the doctor and Elliot, who now had an IV and oxygen mask.

"No apologizes needed, it's understandable," Dr. Maxwell smiled. "Detective Stabler's going to be fine. Concussion, broken left radius, fractured ulna and a little bit of smoke inhalation. He'll be in a cast for a few weeks, but none the worse for wear. We'll have him in a room shortly and, provided all goes well, he'll be discharged in the morning."

Olivia heaved a sigh of relief and shook the woman's hand, "Can I sit with him?"

"Sure, someone will be in soon to set his arm. He'll probably be in and out; he's on pain meds for the arm."

Olivia nodded, "I'm going to see if our captain is here and I'll be right back."

"Of course."

Giving him one last look, Olivia pushed through the double doors.

A few minutes later, she spoke to Cragen, "It was damn close, Captain, they could have died."

"Well, you get back to him. I'll call Kathy and have her and the kids…"

"They're upstate, sir. Visiting her mother."

Cragen nodded, "I'll contact her and at least let her know what happened."

"Thank you, Captain." Olivia looked back at the door leading back to the trauma rooms, "If you don't mind, sir."

Cragen smiled and nodded, "And idea about Kate?"

Olivia suddenly looked guilty, "No, I have no clue. I…I didn't even…"

Cragen put a hand up to stop her, "I'll find out, ok?"

"Thanks, Captain."

"Keep me informed regarding Elliot and I'll call you about Kate. Munch and I will see how Fin and Tony are doing."

"Thanks," she replied, turning back to the doors, slipping through silently.

Gibbs stood on one end of the room, leaning against the wall, as the doctor finished putting butterfly bandages on Kate's head to hold the wound closed. An enormous flood of relief had washed through him when she had woken up 30 minutes ago, shortly after Cragen had come by asking about her. The doctor had determined that, aside from the cut in her head, a concussion and a few bumps and bruises, she was perfectly fine. Gibbs had come dangerously close to losing her again, and he was determined not to let it happen.

His thoughts were broken by the doctor snapping his gloves off and approaching him, "Agent Gibbs, she'll be fine. I want to keep her here the rest of the night for observation due to the concussion, but in the morning, we'll release her. The plastic surgeon will be down shortly to look at the laceration, and suture her up right so she doesn't scar."

Gibbs nodded silently; no one needed extra scars from this case. He watched Kate the whole time because she had closed her eyes again at some point during the procedure.

"She'll be fine, Agent."

Finally Gibbs turned to the man, "Thank you."

He nodded and left the room, leaving Gibbs alone with her. For a moment he just stood in the corner, watching her chest rise and fall slowly. The cut was covered with a bandage and vicious purple and black bruises were starting to form on the entire left side of her face. _Damn, she must have hit something hard. I'm going to kill that guy._

Pushing off from the wall, Gibbs walked over, sat on one of the doctor's rolling stools and moved to her side. Once more he reached out tentatively, knowing that he was pushing a line here, but not really caring. Carefully he touched the unmarred side of her face, surprised when her eyes opened and focused on him. Quickly he snapped back his hand and for a moment he swore he saw amusement dancing in her eyes.

"Hey," she said in a surprisingly strong voice.

"Hey. How are you feeling?"

"Like I just got the shit kicked out of me."

He snorted, "Damn close, Kate. Too damn close."

"You know, you and DiNozzo owe me."

He looked at her quizzically, "How's that?"

"That's four bombs for me. Three for you guys."

He smiled at her attempt of humor.

"My head is killing me," she paused. "Oh, God! Elliot…is he okay?"

"Relax; he's fine, broken arm and a concussion. And you took a nasty blow from something, we aren't sure what yet. What do you remember?"

She licked her lips lightly and took a deep breath, closing her eyes on the exhale to remember better, "I remember going into the house. We swept the first floor and started up the stairs. Elliot stopped and told me to run. We did and the next thing I know there was an explosion behind us," she paused to open her eyes and looked at him. He could see her trying to remember something, something locked in her head. "There's something…"

He placed a calming hand on her shoulder, "Okay, Kate. Relax again, start over in your head, visualize. Why did Elliot tell you to run?"

She nodded and closed her eyes again, "I'm not sure. We were just over halfway up the stairs - I was having a bad feeling - when he suddenly stopped, like maybe he heard or saw something and told me to run. I didn't ask. Then the explosion, then nothing…nothing. No!" Again her eyes snapped open, "Before I lost consciousness I remember seeing him. Hamilton. He was there, standing over me, smiling, Gibbs. He said 'Well, hello, Agent'. He **knew** who we were, who I was. It was **him**, Gibbs." Her voice was steady, sure of herself.

Gibbs' eyes were wide with shock, "He was watching you. He planted that bomb because he knew we would find him."

She nodded in agreement. Before Gibbs could say anything else, another doctor walked in and announced himself as the plastic surgeon. Gibbs got out of the way and contemplated the new information as the man looked at Kate's laceration. Looking back, he noticed the doctor starting to numb her forehead. Taking the opportunity he slipped out of the room and walked outside into the chill of the air and pulled out his phone, pressing speed dial two.

"DiNozzo," the voice came through strong and Gibbs could still hear sirens in the background.

"It's me, Tony. I have some information for you." Quickly Gibbs relayed what Kate had told him.

"Got it, boss, check near the stair bits for bomb pieces."

"And…?" Gibbs asked.

"And Fin put out a new APB on our man, name included. The airports, train station and Canadian border are all on alert. We've started collecting evidence, there's a lot of bomb pieces here, boss. This could take a while. I think we figured out what happened to Kate though."

"Yeah? What?"

"Based on her original position as you described it, it looks like the force of the blast threw her from some point outside the front door and she came to a stop when she hit the back door of the department sedan. Probably head first based on her injuries."

"Jesus. She could be dead," he practically whispered.

"Easily," Tony's voice was low. "Looks like Detective Stabler took the brunt of the explosion. Seems that he made contact with the oak tree and…well…bounced back. Lucky he isn't dead."

Gibbs shuddered slightly at the mental image that conjured. "Thanks, Tony. Let me know when you're back at SVU."

He prepared to close the phone when Tony's tinny voice came through, "How is she?"

Gibbs sighed slightly and rubbed his hand across his forehead, "She's going to be fine. The plastic surgeon is stitching her up now. She'll be fine….fine."

"Are you telling me or convincing yourself, boss? I know you're worried about her."

Gibbs startled at Tony's astute observation, "Doesn't matter. Get back to work, Tony. I want to know where he got those parts from. We need to find him."

He snapped the phone shut and sighed loudly, the younger man's comment had shook something in him. He _was_ worried about Kate, and while his brain was telling him it was purely from the angle that he was her boss, his heart was screaming to get his attention. For the moment Gibbs was ignoring the sound, not sure he wanted to face the reality of exactly what Kate meant to him right that second. It's not allowed, for either of them.

Pursing his lips he looked up at the night sky which was quickly being overrun with dark storm clouds. It seemed to be a theme for the investigation, a seemingly never ending dark cloud over his life.

Olivia started at the sound of thunder, followed shortly thereafter by a lightening bolt flashing across the sky. She could hear the rain start to fall lightly. Not even twenty minutes ago a doctor had come in and started setting Elliot's cast. Elliot, however, hadn't woken up since the ER doctor left. Olivia had been warned it would happen, but it didn't make her feel better. She would have preferred if Elliot was awake, talking to her. If nothing else so she could look into his deep blue eyes.

She watched his chest rise and fall with every breath, even if he wasn't awake it was a sign he was here with her. Olivia observed as the doctor carefully wrapped his arm, smoothing the dampened bandage to avoid air bubbles. The methodic movements started to lull her slightly and she stared transfixed at the forming cast.

A warm, familiar hand touched her face, snapping her back. She turned her head toward Elliot, thrilled to see those eyes staring at her. Smiling she took his hand in hers and squeezed, "El…"

"Hey, Liv," his voice was raspy from the smoke but she was happy to hear it regardless.

For a moment silence hung between them, neither taking their eyes off the other. Both relieved to even see each other again.

"All set," the forgotten doctor's voice rang across the bed.

Olivia broke eye contact to acknowledge the man who had finished the cast. Without speaking another word he got up, pulling off plaster covered gloves and throwing them away. Then he turned back to them, speaking.

"Detective Stabler, you'll need to keep that arm still for a bit and allow the plaster to harden. We'll be keeping you overnight because of that concussion of yours. If you have any questions, just ask for me. Doctor Fisher."

"Thanks," he croaked out.

The doctor turned away and left, leaving them finally alone. Silence reigned as they each debated what to say. A particularly loud thunder clap caused Olivia to jump slightly and they both laughed lightly.

"You ok?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrow at him, "Me? I'm not the one that was just almost blown to pieces." She pursed her lips, attempting to keep the tears at bay. Olivia was not a crier and she didn't want to start now, but he could be dead right now…

"Hey, it's ok…," he reached out and wiped away the one tear that had managed to escape. "I'm fine, broken arm and all."

"You could be dead, El. Dead. Your kids could be fatherless, I could be alone," her voice cracked slightly. "I can't lose you after I finally got you."

He smiled slightly and cleared his dry throat, "But I'm not, Liv."

She nodded slightly and blinked away unfallen tears.

"Man, I'm tired," he stated.

"It's the medication, get some rest."

"You won't leave right?" he asked while fighting to keep his eyes open.

"I'm not going anywhere," she reached out and touched his cheek, which satisfied him and his eyes slipped closed into a deep sleep. Olivia sighed in relief and leaned over, lying her head down on the mattress next to his hip, her hand covering his lightly. Before too long she had followed him into sleep.

Returning to Kate's room, Gibbs found himself seated for the second time, at her side while she slept. He had checked with the nurse, and found that if Kate made it another hour with no problems, she would be released into his care. With the strict instruction that once they returned to the hotel to let her sleep, but wake her every few hours, and if he had trouble to bring her back immediately.

While he watched her chest rise and fall with every breath, his mind floated back to the conversation he'd had with Cragen.

_"Any idea why this guy blew up his own house?"__ Cragen asked. His tone suggested that he already knew the answer, but was hoping Gibbs would tell him something different, because the truth was too awful to consider._

_"Yeah, he knew we would find him. Knew we would get there eventually. It was a trap."_

_Cragen__ had looked down at the floor, "Yeah, kinda figured that. Dammit!"_

_The captain's outburst wasn't too much of a surprise to Gibbs; he'd had nearly the same reaction when he realized the truth. Gibbs has his own suspicions about their target's motivation, but for the moment he kept it silent. Because Gibbs suspected that __Hamilton__ wouldn't go down without taking some of them with him._

tbc…………..


	9. Unpleasant Nights and Good Mornings

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

AN: Nearly 100 reviews, that is the coolest thing like….ever! Thank you, every last one for making my very first crossover a huge success. I just found out it was nominated for an SVU fiction award. Its my first nomination ever as a writer in 2 years, I'm so excited! So big thanks go out to you guys, the best readers ever!

AN2: Not sure what happened the first time I posted this. My betas comments didn't go away. Weird. Sorry about that, here's a prettier copy.

* * *

Chapter 9: Unpleasant Nights and Good Mornings

New York Memorial

Flushing, NY

True to his word, the doctor signed Kate's release papers at two in the morning. Tony had stopped by briefly earlier to tell Gibbs the evidence had been collected, and dropped off with CSU. He also wanted to check on Kate and drop off a car for Gibbs before heading back to the hotel and his bed.

By 2:30, Gibbs had Kate safely in her hotel bed, and was getting into his own. He knew his internal clock would wake him at the appropriate time. Kate would not be a pleasant person to be around tomorrow, but Gibbs didn't care if it meant she was alive.

The first time he woke her was not a enjoyable experience, and if it was any indication of her attitude for the remainder of the night, it was going to be a long one. Two hours after drifting off, Gibbs naturally woke up and crept into her room through the connecting door. There was just enough moonlight coming through the windows that he could see her form curled into a tight ball, facing away from him on her right side. He imagined she couldn't sleep on the left without pain.

He approached the bed and touched her shoulder lightly, calling her name softly in the darkness, "Kate…" No response. This time he shook her shoulder lightly and called her name again. "Kate…"

Nothing.

He was starting to get worried, she hadn't moved a muscle, when her tired voice resonated in the silent room, "You may want to take into consideration that I sleep with a gun under my pillow, Gibbs."

He smiled at the memory of Kate attempting to explain herself while being sandwiched between he and Tony. The look on her face had been priceless. "I'm well aware of that, Agent Todd. I'm just going by doctor's orders."

She rolled over slightly, putting him in her line of sight. He could see the bandage covering her forehead. It was starting to turn pink in one spot from blood seeping through, which was perfectly normal, "Fuck doctors orders, let me sleep."

He was startled by the obscenity, Kate rarely swore, and only occasionally in front of him. "Only two hours at a time, Kate. You heard the man."

She rolled back over and mumbled something decidedly X-rated into her pillow, essentially dismissing him.

Gibbs shook his head and chuckled slightly. Yeah, she was going to be a real ray of sunshine tomorrow.

Twice more that night Gibbs went into her room and woke her up. Both times had been met with thinly veiled hostility. Shortly after going to bed the last time, nearly 7:30 AM, his phone rang. Sighing, he picked it up and answered in a gruff voice. He didn't exactly get a lot of sleep either. "Gibbs."

"It's Cragen. CSU called a bit ago. They went over all the bomb parts. I'll give you directions and your team can meet us there."

Gibbs agreed and wrote down the directions on a hotel pad of paper and called Tony. Getting up, he stretched his muscles before standing. He had slept the night in a pair of UNLV shorts and T-shirt instead of just boxers, knowing he would be going in and out of Kate's room. Again he crossed the threshold between their rooms, intent on waking her up for the last time that day.

When he walked into the room, however, Kate was nowhere to be seen, and for one second fear pulsed through his veins. Until he realized the shower was going.

_Dammit Jethro. You're going to give yourself a heart attack if you start thinking every time she's not in your sight something's happened. _But after the nights events he couldn't blame himself. He had come dangerously close to losing her, something he doesn't even want to contemplate. He had gotten so used to having her around, he couldn't imagine her _not_ being there. He couldn't fathom another agent at her desk, fighting with Tony, being on the same wavelength as him all the time.

At that moment Gibbs realized how much he'd let Kate in and wondered when it happened. Sometime after the hostage incident he was sure, but when exactly would be anyone's guess. She had done it slowly. Without realizing it, Kate had pushed her way into Gibbs' life in ways he'd never expected. He knew she was something special the first day they met when she refused to defy a direct order, but was willing to hijack Air Force One. So when Gibbs found out she resigned, he had made a snap decision, adding her to their team, and his life…

His thoughts were broken by the sound of the water being shut off. Without making any sound, he walked back into his room, carefully closing the doors behind him.

Thirty minutes later he was dressed as usual in khaki pants and a polo shirt. It was too warm to deal with a jacket, so he left that draped over the chair. He was just putting his gun in its belt holster when a soft knock on the door gave him pause, he wasn't sure if it was the main door or the connecting one.

Again, someone knocked, and this time Gibbs turned to his right and the connecting doors. Kate. He adjusted his holster and walked to the door, opening it. His heart constricted at the sight in front of him.

She was dressed as usual, black slacks and a soft-looking red turtleneck he was sure he'd seen before. But her face was what got him. The bruises seemed to have deepened in color and increased in size overnight; shades of purple, black, yellow and deep red stained the left side of her face from forehead to jaw, covering her entire cheek. Her lower lip was split, but the area around her eye seemed only slightly swollen. That seemed strange considering the viciousness of the other injuries.

"Makeup only covers so much," she commented lightly after an uncomfortable silence.

For a moment he didn't speak, just looked at her, and then her words sunk in. "Oh! God, Kate I'm sorry. I didn't mean…," he stopped mid-ramble, unsure of what to say, a rarity for him.

She merely cocked her right eyebrow at him in amusement.

Instead of trying to clarify himself, he reached out one hand tentatively, coming within centimeters of her battered face. She didn't flinch or move away, holding her ground instead - almost challenging him.

Gibbs had never backed down in his life, and he wasn't about to now, not with so much on the line. With his eyes locked on hers, his hand completed the motion, fingertips coming to a gentle stop on her jawline, the least abused spot. When she again didn't flinch from his touch, he moved his hand slowly, allowing his fingers to skim across her bruised skin.

He moved in a slow, steady motion, never letting his eyes leave her deep brown ones. As the contact continued, the air around them seemed to change, becoming heavier somehow, and electric. He could barely breathe as he relished the feeling of her smooth, warm skin under his fingers. Gibbs honestly couldn't remember ever feeling like this before with a mere touch. His heart was racing and he could hear it in his ears. He felt clammy, unsure of himself, but at the same time confident.

He slid down her jaw, allowing his thumb to graze lightly over the cut on her lip before starting up her cheekbone. Just the tips of his fingers touched her, he didn't want to cause her pain. Slowly, he traced the line of the bruising across her cheek bone near her left eye and finally up to her temple, his eyes still never leaving hers. He allowed his fingers to linger at her hairline a moment, tracing the edges of the medical tape almost reverently.

Finally breaking eye contact, he looked at the square white bandage adorning her forehead. Gently he ran his fingers across the cotton surface toward her temple, as if one touch would make the wound disappear. Pursing his lips, he let his hand linger on the bandage, but returned his eyes to hers. She looked…sad.

She reached up one hand and covered his, reassuring him that she was fine, alive and breathing in front of him. Somehow she had known what he was thinking, where his thoughts had been since the whole thing started; he wanted to take her in his arms and hold her as long as he could. He could imagine how her small body would feel against him. But as it was, they'd gone far enough, probably too far.

She increased the contact by leaning into his hand for just an instant before pulling away. For one moment he missed the contact, but in the next, the palm of her hand came into contact with his cheek. She didn't move though, merely left it there as she stared into his eyes. Dropping her hand from his face, she allowed her fingers to just graze the stubble that was starting to grow. Before her hand made it too far he grabbed it and brought the palm that had recently warmed his face to his lips, barely brushing the skin.

Her eyes widened in shock at his actions, but made no move to stop it. He watched her blink slowly, as if confused by the turn of events. Smiling sadly he dropped her hand, still not breaking eye contact. The electricity in the air was still there, but it had diminished.

Words finally permeated the air as Kate softly said his name, her voice dripping with concern, "Gibbs"

"I won't let him near you again." His tone was vicious, unrelenting and the words offered little apology for what had just happened.

"Gibbs, you can't promise that." Her words were soft.

"I just did. And I don't break promises." He needed her to understand.

She looked down for a moment as if contemplating his words, "I know, but…"

One finger hooked under her chin and tilted her head toward him. "No but's."

She merely smiled and reached up, brushing some wayward strands of hair off his forehead. It was an intimate gesture and it mildly surprised Gibbs. But in those few moments, the rules of NCIS seemed to fade enough to allow some unusual behavior on both sides.

She was about to speak again when insistent knocking on Gibbs' door interrupted. He sighed, and reached out one more time, cupping her unmarred cheek in his hand. They both knew this could never happen again. He had been burned badly by a workplace relationship and she had been forced to resign over one.

"Boss! Hey…boss!" Tony shouted, which could be heard clearly through the door.

Without a word Gibbs stepped away from her and headed toward the door, but not before giving her a small wink. She smiled in return and went back to her room, sitting down carefully, her muscles starting to get sore from the recent abuse, and putting on her shoes. She didn't want to take the pain medications that had been prescribed since that would make her all but useless to the team.

Standing a bit too quickly, she was jolted by pain running through her back muscles. Unbidden, a moan escaped her lips and she sighed, annoyed with her body's reaction. Walking somewhat slower than usual, Kate passed through the connecting doors, a small shudder going through her as she stepped into the spot where she and Gibbs had been just minutes before.

It took Tony all of three seconds when she walked into the room to stop his discussion with Gibbs and take a step toward her, inspecting her face carefully. "Ow, Kate."

"Well, that's one way of putting it."

Tony's face turned serious, a rare event for the young agent. "You okay?"

Kate sensed he wanted to reach out and touch her and was thankful he restrained himself. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Just not so pretty looking for a while."

Suddenly he advanced on her, swinging one arm lightly around her shoulders, "Oh, Kate, you're always pretty."

She titled her head at him, "Wow, Tony, I think that was actually a compliment."

"Been known to happen," he said, removing his arm and gave her a quick wink. She merely shook her head and traded a look with Gibbs who had been watching their interaction with interest.

All three left Gibbs' room and headed for CSU, hoping they would have some answers.

New York Memorial Hospital

Flushing, NY

Elliot had been moved into a semi-private temporary room shortly after Olivia had fallen asleep. The doctor had decided to admit him for observation, given that his concussion had been more severe than Kate's. Olivia had moved easily into the room with him, re-staking her claim next to the bed. The nurses hadn't questioned her presence. Thankfully the chair she occupied was significantly more comfortable than the ER stool and, after settling in with one hand again covering Elliot's uncasted one, she had fallen back to sleep.

Several times a nurse had come in and woke Elliot up to monitor his head injury and pain level. Olivia felt he was downplaying how much pain he was in, but since he was only awake long enough for the nurse to ask him how he felt, there was no point pursuing it with him.

The first thing she was aware of was the warm sun on her face. It felt good after the rain of the night before. Blinking slowly, she first looked at the clock, 7:30 AM. Late for her, but considering what happened the night before, not all that surprising. Next she moved her eyes to the bed, only to find Elliot staring right back at her, a gleam in his eye.

"Hey," she said and slowly uncurled herself from the chair. Olivia could feel the stiffness easing as she moved her extremities and stretched. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long."

"Mmmmm," she muttered, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You looked like you needed the sleep. Though I was tempted, you didn't look real comfortable," he flashed her a smile.

"Comfortable enough," she paused and reached out, running her knuckles lightly over his cheek. "How you feeling?"

"Not too bad, all things considered." He smiled at her again and reached up with his good hand, capturing her fingers in his grasp. Slowly they intertwined their fingers together, each relishing the feeling of the other. "How's Kate?" he finally asked after a long silence.

"She's fine. Has a couple of bumps, some bruises and a concussion. She was released last night into Gibbs' care."

He smirked at that. "I'm sure she's in good hands." Suddenly his face changed as something occurred to him, "Wait, how come she got to go home and I didn't?"

Olivia shrugged. "Luck of the draw and your broken arm. It took a while to set, so they kept you around."

He looked at her dubiously, but nodded, "When do I get sprung from this place?"

"Soon, I'm sure."

"Good, I can't wait to be released into your care," he smiled mischievously at her.

"I'm sure you can't." She leaned across his body, steadying herself with one hand on the other side of his body, putting her face within inches of his. This close she could see a light layer of dirt covering his face. Reaching out a hand she wiped at one cheek, removing some of the grime from the night before. Looking back into his eyes, she leaned in the rest of the way, brushing her lips lightly against his.

She had intended it to be a quick kiss, but the second she tasted him she had to have more and kissed him again, harder this time. Elliot reciprocated with equal force, raising one hand behind her head and holding her to him as they kissed with fervor.

Elliot broke first, pulling his face away, but leaving the hand in her hair, stroking softly, thankful they had removed his IV early that morning.

She pursed her lips and said with a smile, "We weren't supposed to do that."

"I'm not going to tell, are you?"

Her impossibly dark eyes sparkled. "No."

He smirked and put his hand down, resting it on her knee. They sat in silence for several minutes before he spoke. "I knew what it was the second it happened."

"What?" she asked, honestly confused by his sudden change in topic and demeanor. One second he was joking with her, kissing her, the next his tone was serious.

"When I stepped on the trigger, I knew what it was right away, there's no click quite like it." She said nothing, just nodded for him to continue.

"We swept the downstairs first and it was clear, but there were drag marks in the dirt on the floor leading upstairs. I thought he might be hiding the women there before dumping them, so we followed the trail, right to a trap." His tone was annoyed, bordering on anger.

"You didn't know…"

Anger flashed in his eyes, though not directed at her. "We should have waited for back up."

"Yeah? And then there would have been more of you injured, maybe even dead." She leaned into him, her eyes blazing. "You saved yours and Kate's life. If you hadn't recognized that noise for what it is, we'd be planning a funeral."

He was silent; he knew she was right, she always was. He sighed loudly and put his head back on the pillow.

She touched his arm lightly. "Why don't I go see about getting you out of here and call Cragen with what you told me."

She started to stand, but his hand gripping her wrist stopped her. "I'm sorry, Liv."

She gave him a half smile. "Don't be. Just…don't do that to me again."

They both knew it was a hollow request, the nature of the job pretty much insured that. But for the minute they pretended that the words meant something, if only to ease their own minds.

CSU

One Center Street , 10 am

Gibbs ran his hands through his short hair. "So, what you're telling me is that the bomb was home-made of gunpowder, a metal pipe, a fuse and a pressure switch? Nothing of interest."

The CSU agent looked annoyed at his frustrated tone. "It's a standard bomb; any idiot with the internet could put it together. The only thing probative was some white dust on the outside of the pipe. I sent that for analysis."

He nodded and paced slightly in front of the table between himself and the tech. The other two members of his team, along with Munch and Fin, watched carefully, as if waiting for him to suddenly uncoil and strike down the technician.

Kate's calm voice permeated the air and stopped him, "It was just gunpowder?" The tech nodded and she continued, "That wouldn't do a significant amount of damage compared with other ingredients, would it?"

"Depends on the location of the bomb," he explained. "Other explosives would have done significant damage and a lot faster, you probably wouldn't have been able to outrun it. If Stabler hadn't recognized the noise for what it was, then you could have ended up in the basement instead of here."

She seemed to contemplate this a minute. "Are there other pressure switches that don't make a noise they could have used?"

"Sure."

She turned to Gibbs, "He didn't want us dead. Not by a long shot. He KNEW we would recognize that noise and bolt. He knew we'd be injured, but if we moved fast enough, we'd be alive. He didn't care one way or the other if we lived or died…."

"Bastard," Gibbs hissed. "He's toying with us now."

She nodded.

He turned and looked at Tony, "I want you, Munch and Fin to dig up every shred of information about this guy. I want to know what schools he went too, his mother's maiden name, his blood type, the first pot he pissed in. FIND IT."

Tony nodded. "What about you and Kate, boss?"

Now he turned to the detectives. "You think your psychologist would mind a visit?"

Fin shook his head. "Lemme give him a call."

FBI Offices

26 Federal Plaza

Gibbs watched with interest as the Asian man paced in front of several huge picture windows, which gave a formidable view of the city. Huang had been quiet for nearly five minutes and Gibbs was getting agitated. He wasn't a patient man, he wanted answers and he wanted them now.

Finally, George spoke, every word measured carefully, "Well, your FBI profiler did an excellent job, but with the new information…it's interesting."

"Interesting how?" Gibbs asked somewhat tersely, which earned him a look from Kate who was seated next to him in front of Huang's desk.

"Serial killers typically don't change pattern or crime. They do what they do for a specific reason. It makes sense to them. So for one of them to suddenly make such an alarming turn is unusual. Something has changed his mindset, perhaps it's being in his hometown again. Going after the police is a bold move, yet since the bomb was easily escapable. He wanted you to know he knows you're onto him. It's a game now, more so than before."

He stopped a moment and consulted the file. "He may have wanted to stop after Newport, to avoid capture, so he came to New York where he felt safe. Maybe it's the only place he does. But when he saw Allison celebrating it brought it all back for him, the anger, the frustration, the resentment…" He paused again.

"Your suspect was probably rejected or passed over by a high ranking female officer and now he sees the victims as whoever slighted him. He's taking his revenge out on them. Something in him snapped before the first murder. He was probably a behavior problem for the military, possibly kicked out because of it."

"We are pulling Richard Hamilton's file now, but what I need to know, Doc, is what his next move is."

"I think you're also correct regarding his motivation. As soon as he killed in his hometown he decided this would be his last stand, and what better way to end his rampage than by taking out those who tried to stop him. He would go down in infamy as the only serial killer to kill the people looking for him first." He paused once more before delivering the one piece of news Gibbs didn't want, "He's coming after your team."

Federal Plaza

He watched shrouded in the shadows from across the street as the two NCIS officers left the FBI headquarters. He zoned in on his next target. She was easy to spot, her brown hair was being whipped around by the post-storm wind. They had met twice before, last night ever so briefly and in the alley of Newport. Both times he'd come close to making her his next prize. Both times he was interrupted. First in Rhode Island; he'd had enough time to incapacitate her, but not enough to carry her away and complete the mission. Her companions had stopped the process. It had disturbed him greatly, but not more than finding out she wasn't a real Marine. It had infuriated him, the little bitch had tried to trick him. Trick _him. _She would have ruined it all, she wasn't one of them.

After that near miss in Newport he had tried to stop, he really had, he wasn't ready to be caught just yet. But it was so hard, especially when he was in that bar and the women were right there. Tempting him, calling to him to be punished, they didn't deserve the position they were in. Their gender had insured their rank over his, because he had a dick he was stuck, while some bitch went ahead of him. Never again. Then when he saw Allison and her slut friends, he couldn't allow her to take his spot again, no woman would be able to. So he'd done to her what he had done so many times before. It felt so good, so right to watch her life being squeezed out of her, as his life had been squeezed out of him.

After Allison, Richard knew what had to be done, what should be done, because he also knew they would come after him, they always did. The perfect ending to his mission. Kill the bitch. The one that had impersonated a Marine, she would be his crowning glory, the end of his run. He didn't care if he was caught or not now, he had the end in sight, the ending he was waiting for: perfection. Richard would be happy if the last thought he had to ponder over while sitting on death row was the picture of her begging for her life; screaming and finally wheezing out her last breath as he squeezed the life out of her at last.

The bitch. The one that got away. She would be the last.

Last night, he had come dangerously close to losing that chance. Richard knew they would find his home eventually, at least he hoped they did. So he left a surprise, a warning of sorts, because it's so much sweeter when they know you're coming. When she entered the house, though, a moment of panic went through him. If they didn't hear it, didn't run, his perfect ending would be ruined. Thankfully he saw them both emerge from the house seconds before the explosion. She seemed to come to a particularly nasty stop so Richard tempted fate and checked on her; made sure she was still alive; and for one second he debated taking her right there, it would have been so easy, but something stopped him. It was almost too easy, and where would the fun be if she died not by his hands but because of the explosion. No, unacceptable.

So now he watched her get into the standard issue sedan with the older man that seemed to be everywhere with her. He needed to get her alone just long enough to grab her. He would wait patiently until then. Somehow he doubted his pursuers would be leaving until they caught him.

tbc…………………………….


	10. The Conclusion

Title: Shaitan

Author: CSIphile/Redwing

Disclaimers and the like are on the first chapter.

AN: This is the last chapter; there is an epilogue, however, so expect that around Sunday. It's also the longest chapter by far, hope that doesn't dissuade you. grin It's been a fabulous journey, and a long one, but I've enjoyed it, hope you have too.

AN2: Again, thank you for the great reviews; they really do feed a writer's soul and it only takes a quick second to do it. So please, even though this is the last chapter, feel free to leave a note telling me you liked it.

* * *

Chapter 10: The Conclusion

"You're going to be sore for a couple days. We have prescribed some pain medication -- take it as needed, but don't take more than 6 a day. It's going to take some getting used to with the cast, but just take it easy and don't get it wet."

Elliot nodded for what felt like the 18th time already, he just wanted to get the hell out of there and do it yesterday. Now that the pain was at a bearable limit, he was ready to get back to finding this asshole, and maybe get a lick in for himself and Kate. Lucky for him, Munch had stopped at the house and picked him up a bag, so he had showered that morning, carefully of course, and was ready to go. Kathy had been called before she left her mother's and told it wasn't serious and there was no need to bring the kids down. Elliot didn't want them seeing him like this anyway, not until the guy was caught.

"Ok, you're all set, detective."

_The words I've been waiting to hear, _he thought as Olivia grabbed the papers and prescription from the doctor, thanking him. All Elliot was ready to thank him for was the escape notice.

He got off the bed slowly and stood behind Olivia as close as he could get, prodding her with his right hand toward the door. She quickly wrapped up the conversation with the doctor, asking something about concussions as she walked out the door, with him hot on her heels.

"What the hell was that about?" she asked as they walked out into the daylight.

"I wanted out, got people to hunt down."

"Ohhhh no, Stabler. You are going right home to rest."

"Ohhhh no, Benson. You are taking me to the station," he said as they approached the car.

"Nuh uh. Doctor said you needed rest, and you're getting it."

"It's a broken arm, Liv, not a gunshot wound. Besides, I broke my arm as a kid in an unfortunate tree incident. I can handle it."

"Elliot…."

"Did you call Cragen today?" he asked, seemingly out of the blue.

She eyed him suspiciously. "Yes, why?"

"Where are the NCIS guys?" he asked smoothly.

"Tony is with Fin and Munch on background, Kate and Gibbs went to see Huang." As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what he was digging for. The expression on his face confirmed it: Kate was working, so why couldn't he.

"Let's go," he grinned at her, and got into the now-unlocked car. She stood outside for a minute and he could hear her grumbling incoherently before getting behind the wheel and shooting him an evil look.

Halfway to the stationhouse, though, Olivia's phone rang and they promptly turned around, heading back to the trace lab. They had some information for the two of them.

Predictably, the sedan issued to Kate and Gibbs was already parked in front of the building, with Fin's just to the other side. Olivia secured a spot three down and they got out of the car. Olivia hadn't spoken to him for most of the ride except to make sure he was feeling ok. She wasn't mad at him, but at herself for letting him get the info he wanted out of her so easily.

They walked to the double doors, but just as she was about to open the doors, he stopped her.

She turned and looked at him curiously.

"I'm sorry."

It was a rare occasion that Elliot Stabler apologized willingly, and she smiled.

"It's ok, you didn't do anything. I'm just being…" She paused.

"Protective."

"Yeah."

"So, we good?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're good."

"Let's get this bastard."

She nodded and opened the door, hoping to find the answers within.

Elliot raised one eyebrow at the technician. "Drywall dust?"

The tech nodded and handed him a sheet. On the plain paper was a graph with peaks and valleys -- a GMCS test, no doubt. Elliot stared at it a moment and looked in the result column, which confirmed what the tech said.

"That…doesn't help." Tony stated the obvious for everyone.

"Maybe it does. You only come by drywall dust if you're working with the stuff…" Olivia said.

"Pull his work history; see if he's done construction. Maybe on an unfinished project," Elliot finished.

Gibbs watched the two; they were comfortable with each other, more so even than when he first saw them. But they were also right.

"Kate…" he snapped, but she was already stepping to the back of the room, phone in hand. They needed to make sure both his civilian and military work history was faxed over.

She smiled at him slightly as she moved back and opened the cell. Kate knew he would ask her, he always did. It seemed to be a habit: Kate did background work.

Quickly she used the speed dial to get Abby's office, but after one mere ring, the phone cut out on her. She pulled it back and looked at the LCD display…no signal. Frustrated, she moved around a bit, but still her signal light remained red. Nothing. Sighing, she looked back to the group -- Tony noticed her and she indicated she was going outside to make the call. He nodded and she stepped into the hall…still no signal.

_I'm actually going to have to go outside for this. What the hell! _Very rarely did Kate lose signal on the phone. NCIS had been careful to get contracts with companies that had signals all over the country.

She took the elevator up to the ground floor; she had been in the basement, so maybe that had something to do with it. Stepping outside, she noted that the early October air was warmer than usual. The street was actually pretty quiet; not many pedestrians came down this way -- it was mostly law enforcement.

Glancing at her phone once more, Kate was relieved to see a green light instead of a red one. A signal. Again she opened the phone and pressed 5. Several seconds later, Abby's voice floated over the line.

"Hey, Kate! How are you? Gibbs told us what happened. Did you just call?"

Kate startled at the multiple questions. "Hey, Abs. I'm fine, thanks. Yeah, I did, phone cut out. Can you do me a favor?"

"Certainly."

"The background Gibbs asked for on Hamilton? Could you make sure that includes military and civilian work history? You can probably get it faster than the NYPD anyway."

"Not a problem -- I have military, let me dig up civilian. Won't take long. Seriously, Kate, you ok?"

Kate opened her mouth to answer, but a strange sensation washed over her, causing the hairs at the back of her neck to stand on end. It felt like someone was watching her. Slowly she turned, looking around her, the phone still pressed to her ear.

"Kate?"

Abby's voice pulled her back and she stopped moving. "Yeah, seriously, nothing major. A couple bumps." She was distracted, that feeling tugging at her subconscious, and she continued the turn, still not seeing anything. "How's everything there?" she asked, absently.

"Great! McGee has been here since you guys left to lend a hand."

Kate could feel her pulse start to race -- something was not right -- but she answered Abby anyway. "Well, you guys must be having fun without Gibbs around."

"Are you kidding? Gibbs IS the fun, Kate."

Kate managed a small laugh, but her tone alerted Abby something was up. "Kate? Everything ok?"

As quickly as it had come, the feeling went away, and she went back to concentrating on the call. "Yeah, fine. I'm just paranoid."

"It's not paranoia if someone is after you, Kate."

She was about to respond when someone ran into her from behind. She swiveled quickly, one hand going to her sidearm, but it was too late. She could feel his gun pressed into her side and now could see the face of Richard Hamilton under a hooded sweatshirt, staring at her with smug satisfaction.

"End the call."

She complied, snapping the phone shut loudly.

On the other end, Abby called her name; she could have sworn she heard someone speaking to Kate. Looking at the clock, Abby decided to give her 2 minutes to call back.

Kate licked her lips, and gave him an evil look.

"Start walking north. If you attempt to signal anyone, you're dead, understand?"

"I'm dead anyway, aren't I, Richard?"

"Yes, but your friends will be also if you don't comply, so move."

Something about him just coming right out and admitting her death was imminent rocked Kate to the core. But she complied, walking in the direction he indicated. Richard walked right next to her, the gun still pressed into her abdomen. Kate had a feeling this was not going to end well.

As the clock ticked through one minute forty-five seconds, Abby picked up the phone and dialed Kate's cell. It rang 5 times before going to voicemail, but Abby knew if Kate didn't have a signal; it would have gone straight to voicemail. Kate wasn't answering. Panic rose through the tech, and she hung up, dialing another number.

They were just finishing a discussion on the next step when Gibbs' cell phone rang. He looked down at the display…Abby. Before answering, he turned quickly, scanning the room for Kate; she was gone, supposedly on the phone with Abby. This didn't add up.

As he opened the phone, he spoke aloud to the group. "Where's Kate?"

Tony answered him as the phone came to his ear. "She went outside; I think she had a bad signal down here."

"Gibbs," he said into the phone.

All he got in return was half a conversation, Abby's words were being cut off due to the poor signal, but what he got was enough. "Kate….with….gone."

Faster than he had moved in his life, Gibbs bolted out of the room and down the hall to the stairs, taking two at a time. The rest of the group was hot on his heels, despite being in the dark about what exactly was going on.

He ran through the front doors and down the steps…to nothing. She wasn't there. He looked at his phone, full signal, and put it back to his ear. Abby was still on the line.

"Abs, what happened?"

"She's not with you?" Abby's voice was strained.

"No, what happened?" Agitation was seeping into his voice.

"I was talking to her and suddenly the phone cut off. I assume she lost signal again, since it happened before. But…" She paused.

"But what?" His voice was terse.

"I tried to call back and she didn't answer, and I could have sworn I heard someone say something to her before the phone shut off."

"What did he say, Abby?" Somewhere inside, Gibbs knew what had happened.

"Hang on; I'm pulling the conversation now."

Gibbs waited not so patiently as Abby pulled up the DAT recording; NCIS recorded every conversation that came through the landlines. He looked at the rest of the group and filled them in. Quickly they scattered down the block, looking for the missing agent, hoping she just walked away from the building. Of course that didn't explain why she wasn't answering her cell.

As he stood at the bottom of the stairs, he looked around carefully: there was nothing, no indication where she went. Kate had vanished without a trace.

"Ok, Gibbs, I got it. Let me put you on speaker."

He heard her fiddle with buttons and put the headset down.

"Let's replay this bad boy…"

There was a distinct voice next to Kate, but neither could make out the words.

"Hang on, lemme clean it up, remove some background noise."

Again more clicking on the computer. "Ahh better!"

_"End the call."_

"Again," Gibbs whispered.

_"End the call."_

It was him; in his heart Gibbs knew it was Richard. And he had Kate. Gibbs had promised her, and failed.

Kate quietly got in the car; she sensed this was not the time to be difficult, and she had little doubt he would kill her that second if she resisted, despite his plans for her. Dead was dead. Kate preferred to prolong her life and attempt escape when it was more prudent.

The car was a green GM – an older model, she didn't know the make. The passenger door appeared to be jimmied so she couldn't get out. She had to get in the driver's side with a gun trained on her and slide across. He had parked in an alley surrounded by taller buildings, so very little light flooded down to where they were. She doubted anyone could see them from the street since they were parked so far in.

_Great, just great.___

He hadn't spoken a word, but the expression on Hamilton's face was enough to send fear through her. It was a mix of glee and anger, something she had never seen before. Not even from the terrorist who held her, Ducky and Gerald hostage.

_Nice, Kate. You seem to make a habit of getting captured. Gibbs oughta fire you for this._

Gibbs. She could only hope that he found her.

"Abby, I'm going to try calling her. If her phone is on, trace her." His strong voice hid the terror rising.

"Got it."

Gibbs heard clicking and hung up with Abby just as Tony returned. "Call Abby now," he commanded, and the younger agent complied.

Pressing speed 3, Gibbs prayed that she would answer and tell him she just ran to the local Starbucks for coffee. But his heart knew better. He was surprised when the phone picked up after three rings….

"Yes."

…And his heart sunk at the male voice that answered.

"Where is Agent Todd?" he asked in a tone that was all business.

"She's with me now. She will pay like the others, she will be the end. The final trophy."

Gibbs felt the bile rise in his throat. "Let me talk to her."

"No."

And the phone clicked off.

Gibbs barely suppressed a scream of rage, instead grabbing the phone out of Tony's hand.

"Abby, where is she?"

"North side, heading west…." Abby stopped a minute, then swore. "Shit!"

"Abby?" Gibbs asked slowly.

"She's gone. The phone is off." Her voice was distant. "I…she's gone."

Tony instantly knew what happened when Gibbs' face turned a chalk white and he slumped to the ground, sitting on the steps.

"Boss…."

"Not now, Tony. He's got her." Gibbs put his head in his hand, bile rising in his throat. He failed her; the thought made him angry, furious and he resisted the urge to scream out loud. Instead he whispered, "Oh God…"

Kate heard her phone ring, but that was the last thing before she felt a prick in her neck and slumped against the window, quickly losing consciousness. When she woke next, she found herself in a small room; there was a window on the long wall and a door on the opposite side. Carefully she got up, ignoring the slight dizzy spell, and walked over toward the window.

Saying there was a window was actually giving it more credit than was due. There was a hole for a window, but it appeared to her that the actual frame and glass had never been put in the empty space. As she looked out, quickly she realized this was not an escape option; she was at least 6 stories up, a minimum of sixty feet and it looked more than that to her. The only other building around her appeared empty also. Based on the outside condition of the buildings, it looked like she was in an unfinished apartment or condo complex.

The room she was in, however, was finished, which would be why the vics had no drywall dust on them. She looked around the brightly lit room and cringed. There were leg irons attached to a u-bolt in the floor. Kate noticed instantly she was not attached to them and wondered why; she also noticed her shoes were gone and she was in her bare feet. Something else caught her eye, a speck of…something on the floor. She approached slowly, trying not to disturb the evidence. She squatted next to the spot, not so far from the u-bolt and recoiled instantly. It was blood, a smear of it maybe 3 inches long. She had only caught one end in the light.

"Oh, God," she whispered and searched her pockets in the small hope he had left her phone. No such luck. So she moved over to the door, hoping it would somehow magically open, but was not surprised when she found it locked. A couple hard shoves and the door didn't move an inch. Silently Kate moved to the opposite corner of the room and sat down, pulling her knees to her chest.

SVU Squad room

"Where the hell is it?!" Gibbs hollered at Tony.

The younger man just shook his head in an "I don't know" gesture. They had been waiting for the fax from Abby; they had most of it, but Hamilton's military work history had done little good. Gibbs had a feeling what they wanted was in the civilian part.

"Get it, Tony -- I want that right now."

Tony nodded and moved to Elliot's phone. Meanwhile, Elliot came to Gibbs' side.

"Man, I know you're frustrated, but we'll find her." Elliot honestly couldn't chide the man much, because Elliot had to admit he would be doing the same thing if Olivia disappeared.

Gibbs' gaze turned on him and Elliot resisted stepping back from the intensity. "Let's just hope we don't find her dead."

He wasn't sure why he did it, but something in Elliot --actually something in the NCIS agent's behavior – made him ask: "Is there something going on with you and Kate?"

"What? I'm her boss."

Elliot narrowed his eyes and lowered his tone. "But you…have feelings for her. I understand, Gibbs, I really do. But snapping at Tony isn't going to get her back. We need to focus."

Gibbs' expression softened slightly. "You're right, I'm sorry. I just…I made a promise to her and I broke it." And he walked away.

It took Elliot a minute to realize Gibbs never denied what was going on between him and Kate. _Smart man.___

Tony's voice rang through the bullpen right after Elliot perched himself on Olivia's desk. "Got it, boss! She's faxing it over."

All eyes turned to the fax machine, which began spitting out paper that Gibbs retrieved. He read each page as it came through, distressed by the number of W2's the man had filed in the past 5 years since leaving the military.

Once the last page had spooled out and he read it, Gibbs turned to them. "Hamilton has been with 6 construction companies over the last 5 years." He handed the pages to Elliot. "Split 'em up, everyone call one and check what properties Hamilton worked, particularly ones that were never completed and are still mostly habitable."

Within minutes everyone was on the phone, each repeating basically the same words to different people. Elliot finished his conversation quickly: Hamilton had worked a mere 3 weeks at Nelson Construction before being fired for his behavior, and he never even made it to a project. Standing, he walked to Olivia's desk; she was nodding and writing something down.

"Yeah, can you fax that to me? Great, thank you."

She hung up and looked at Elliot, who was leaning against her desk.

"How's your arm?"

"Not bad, kinda itches."

"Need some meds?"

"Only if you have something for the itching."

"Nope." She looked at him with a sad expression.

Elliot leaned in closer to her. "What's wrong?"

"Kate. I can….she must be terrified. She knew what happened to those women, she knows what's going to happen to her. It's…frightening. I know"

Uncaring of their location, Elliot reached out and put one hand on hers, stroking the skin slowly with his thumb. She looked at him sadly and sighed, pulling her hand out from his.

"Not here."

He nodded imperceptibly and she got up, moving to the fax, reading the pages. Olivia slowly walked to the board and put two green pins in the locations that Hamilton had worked. Hers were swiftly joined by two more from Tony and then one each from Munch and Fin. Gibbs added two more, making a total of eight.

Standing back, the four members of the NYPD and two members of NCIS inspected the map. There were two yellow pins indicating where Allison and Carmen had been dumped, and one red one indicating Kate's last known location. They focused on sites close to the two drop locations, which where were a mere 3 blocks from each other. Kate's last known location on the GPS had been 4 blocks north of the marina where Carmen was found.

Tony's and Munch's pins where discarded immediately; they were nowhere near anything. That left five.

"Where are the property descriptions?" Elliot asked and everyone handed their sheets over. He put down the three that had been eliminated and started from the top.

He scrunched his nose at the first. "Fin, this one was demolished three weeks ago," Elliot stated and dropped it in the "No" pile. Elliot pointed at one of Olivia's pins. "Four story apartment complex -- it was being refurbished, owner went bankrupt halfway through, they are looking for new buyers."

"What's around it?" Gibbs asked.

Olivia looked closer at the map and pursed her lips. "It's a mixed retail and residential section of town. There's other filled units around."

"Nope," Gibbs said. "It would be somewhere no one could hear them or see him bringing them in and out."

Elliot put that in the "No" pile and scanned the next one, repeating the motion. "Well that eliminates this one. Midtown."

"Down to two," Tony stated.

"Hmmmm, this looks promising." He handed the file to Gibbs. "It's a group of four six story buildings in a formerly industrial zone. They were never finished due to zoning issues that haven't been resolved, and the rest of the area is pretty empty."

Gibbs looked up at the pin on the map and stated emphatically, "This is it."

Olivia was on the phone in a second, calling for backup and alerting the hostage team.

Elliot walked over to him. "I told you we'd find her."

"Hopefully she's still alive."

"It's only been a few hours, Gibbs."

"I don't think he's going to be following the usual pattern, Elliot."

The other man nodded and patted Gibbs on the back as he walked away.

She was starting to shiver now, the waning sun no longer warming the small room for her. Pulling her arms tighter around her, she pressed her chest to her thighs and was rewarded with a brief sensation of heat. Kate wondered if he was just planning on leaving her here to starve to death.

The sound of the door unlocking made her wish he _would_ leave her to starve, because the alternate scenario scared her more than anything else. Hamilton walked in and crossed the room toward her, apparently unconcerned with the fact she was not restrained.

"It's time, bitch." He tilted his head at her.

Kate didn't move a muscle or speak, so he came over and grasped her upper arm, yanking her to her feet. As soon as she was upright, Kate swung one hand out, palm first, making contact with his nose, and she felt the satisfaction of hearing something snap. Hamilton screamed, bringing the other hand to his nose, but never letting go of her. Kate pulled at his grip, trying desperately to get away, and for one second he removed the hand on her arm and she started to flee. But Kate swiftly realized why he let go of her when a brutal punch to the stomach dropped her to the floor.

Now he grabbed her ponytail, lifted her again to her feet and threw her against the wall. She felt the air explode out of her lungs and struggled to catch her breath.

"Stupid bitch," he muttered and walked over to her, his nose and hand bloody from her attack. He grabbed her by the back of the neck with his red-tinted hand and forced her out of the room and into the enormous living room. One look around and she knew this was where he did the killings. There was some minor blood splatter on the walls in addition to some signs of a struggle. Plastic sheeting hung down some walls that only had studs on them, probably left by the construction company. Several pieces were only hanging by a thread -- they looked like they had been violent ripped down. The lighting in here was moderately better, only due to two floor-to-ceiling windows on the west side; it would have been a beautiful view had they been finished. But the swiftly setting sun set the room in a ghastly orangey-red glow.

Midway through her observation, Kate was thrown to the ground, landing on all fours.

"Beg for your life, bitch," he hissed.

"Fuck you," she spat back.

His eyes flashed with anger and one foot came out, coming in hard contact with her side. Kate felt her body lift slightly at the contact, but she didn't fall over. She had, however, bitten her tongue hard and spit the blood out on the plywood floor.

"Trust me, that's coming. That's all you women are good for, a good lay. You shouldn't be allowed in the military, you take away good spots from decent men -- hardworking men who deserve it."

Kate turned her head and looked at Hamilton, weighing her options. She had two choices: agree with him, or be aggressive and agitate him. She chose the former. "Sometimes, yeah, that happens."

Apparently she had picked the wrong one, though honestly she wasn't sure if there was a right answer with this guy, because he bent down next to her and roughly grabbed her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. "You don't know anything about it, so shut the hell up."

With that he released her chin and punched her hard across the right side of her face. "Now you have matching bruises. How does it feel?"

She was silent.

"How. Does. It. Feel?" he said slowly.

"It hurts, god damn it."

"Do you want me to stop, Agent?" Glee skittered across his face.

"Doesn't matter what I want, you're going to do it anyway."

"You are smarter than the others, Agent. They begged for their lives…screamed actually. Each of them, you should have heard the screams, and the bargaining, they would have done just about anything for me to let them go. Just shows you that they didn't deserve their rank." Again he leaned into her, bringing his lips right next to her ear. "You'll be begging soon enough." And he stood up, grabbing something nearby.

She turned her head just in time to see the two by four coming down onto her back.

The four police cars, one SWAT van and one hostage rescue van pulled to a stop a mile from the apartments. The NYPD, NCIS and leader of SWAT and HRT gathered by the hood of Elliot's car, looking at the floor plans of the buildings.

"The problem is," the SWAT guy started, "we don't know which building, or which floor."

"I think we can safely say he is in the building farthest from the main street." Tony said and Gibbs nodded in agreement.

"He'll want to be far away from the main road." Gibbs pointed at the road that led to the unfinished entrance.

"Ok," SWAT started again. "Any clue WHERE in the building?"

"Top floor, any closer than that and he runs the risk of the girls jumping out. None of the buildings had their windows installed according to the builder," Olivia stated. "The top floor is split into two penthouse apartments. One facing east, one west. On this building, the west apartment faces into the others, and I bet that's where he is. He wouldn't want her facing the other way; there's a lightly traveled avenue on the backside of the buildings."

Again, Gibbs nodded, impressed.

The SWAT commander seemed to consider this. "Here's the deal. To be safe, we split the teams: half go into the west apartment, half to the east, just in case. We'll park on the other side of the tree line and walk to the building; it's not even twenty yards, and we should be in before he sees us."

Gibbs looked at Tony. "You're with Munch and Fin in the east side."

Tony nodded and checked the clip on his 9 mm.

"Let's move."

The group got back in the cars and drove the last mile. Gibbs was sitting with Elliot and Olivia, hoping like hell they weren't too late.

Despite the cracking sound and the pain spiking through her back, Kate didn't fall. She swayed slightly, but fought off the blackness and shook her head, terrified of what would happen if she closed her eyes.

"You're strong, defiant….it couldn't be more perfect."

Now he grabbed her shoulder and pushed her hard, forcing her to fall sideways into a sitting position against the nearest stud wall. None of these walls had drywall, and she wondered where exactly the trace came from.

Kate managed a deep breath in, but it only caused more pain to move down her beaten back. He kicked out one of her legs, forcing it to lie out flat. He picked up the two by four used on her back and started a nice back swing, bringing the board into a crashing halt against her ankle.

Now she screamed in pain; she wasn't sure if the bone broke, but it hurt like hell.

"Ahhhh, she does scream."

Immediately Kate closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing, pushing the pain from her mind.

He stood in front of her and again dragged her to her feet. Kate tried to keep the weight off her left foot as best she could, but it wasn't easy. Hamilton took a step toward her, reaching one hand out and lifting her sweater slightly, touching the toned muscles of her abdomen.

"Well, I must say this. The military keeps its whores in shape."

Now she was getting angry and spit in his face.

Immediate retribution followed, he kicked her legs apart and pressed his body against her. She could feel his breath moving along her cheek to her ear where he licked the lobe.

"Oh, you so deserve this. It'll be special for you," he whispered and slid one hand under her shirt again, inching his way up.

The two teams came to a stop at the landing on the top floor. Two SWAT members per team, with the NCIS and NYPD split between them and HRT on the ground floor. At a motion by the lead SWAT with Gibbs' team, both simultaneously kicked open the doors into the penthouses.

Kate heard the front door break off its hinges and then was being pushed through an open doorway into what looked like one end of a galley kitchen; on the opposite side was a large dining room with a hallway off it leading to the back of the apartment.

"Fuck," Hamilton hissed, obviously not pleased with the turn of events.

She pulled at his grasp some more, trying to slow them down. It worked for a moment, but as they got to dining area, the two SWAT guys popped through the opposite end, following their path, screaming for them to freeze.

Hamilton did, just long enough to put her in front of himself and pull a knife out of the nearest drawer, putting it to her throat. Kate could see blood caked on it and she swallowed. She had images of circles carved into flesh cycle through her head, instantly she felt nauseous.

Richard kept swaying back and forth, causing her ankle to flare with pain, but she tried to ignore it, focusing instead on the SWAT team, who had their guns trained on them.

She could see Gibbs with an infuriated look on his face, just behind the SWAT members, but he didn't look at her -- he was focused on Hamilton.

"Put the knife down," one of the black-clad SWAT members said.

"No way in hell. The bitch is going to die. It may not be the way I wanted, but it'll happen. Trust me, it'll happen. Dead is dead." With that he started to slide the knife across her throat and she felt a trickle of blood run down her neck. He pulled her farther into the dining room, toward the hallway and in the direction of probably the bedrooms. SWAT followed slowly, their guns never dropping. He forced her into the hall and followed the narrow path back; he obviously had a destination in mind.

Kate caught something out of the corner of her eye near the last door, but didn't give any indication of it. Hamilton hadn't seen it obviously; his focus was on the men following them.

"Make one more move toward me and I'll slit her throat right now."

With that, SWAT stopped moving, but kept the guns trained on them; they weren't prepared yet to shoot the hostage. Kate gave silent thanks for that.

Again he tugged at her, but this time her ankle refused to cooperate and she stumbled slightly, infuriating him.

"MOVE IT," he hissed in her ear and pressed the knife harder into her flesh.

She gathered herself and complied, leaning into him as support for her ankle. He turned back slightly to look at their destination and started walking faster. He opened the door to a closed and mostly finished room, yelling to the SWAT guys as he violently pushed her in. Kate stumbled to the floor rather unceremoniously, again landing on all fours.

"Better call HRT, you've got a hostage situation." His words echoed in the nearly empty penthouse.

Kate heard a female voice from inside the room call out…

"Not anymore you don't."

…Recognized it and heard the gunshot all at once. Olivia.

Kate pushed herself to sitting and looked back. Hamilton lay in a growing pool of his own blood, brain matter on the plastic sheeting behind where he had been standing. Olivia had hit him between the eyes, practically blowing out the back of his head.

She sat stunned for a moment before Olivia crouched in front of her. "You ok?"

All Kate could do was nod; she didn't trust herself to speak yet. Her eyes were glued to the body on the floor until she heard Gibbs calling her name. She looked up in time to see him come around the corner, carefully stepping over Hamilton.

"Gibbs…"

At once he was on the floor at her side, pulling her carefully into his arms. She wrapped hers around his neck and buried her face into his chest, trying to control the emotions running through her. Despite her efforts, unbidden tears started to fall down her face and she pulled herself closer to his warm body. Gibbs responded by holding her just a little bit tighter, and Kate ignored the pinpricks of pain this time.

It took several minutes for the tears to stop and she pulled her head away from his chest, looking at him carefully. His eyes held nothing back; she easily read the fear, anger, guilt and relief in them.

Finally he reached out and pushed her loose bangs behind her ear. "I'm sorry, Kate," he whispered.

"For what?" she asked, leaning into his touch. The rest of the world simply didn't exist for them, and neither cared if half the NYPD and NCIS saw them.

"I didn't keep my promise."

For a second, Kate swore she saw tears well in the man's blue eyes.

"You can't keep them all, Gibbs, you just can't. The important part is you found me and I'm fine."

He nodded silently and she placed her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat slowly. She felt him wrap his arms around her again and place a light kiss in her hair.

"It's over now," he whispered, and it sounded to Kate like he was trying to convince himself. "It's over…."

She nodded, finally safe in his arms, and closed her eyes briefly. It _was_ all over.

Fin


	11. Epilogue

Title: Shaitan

Author: Redwing/CSIphile

AN: Ahhh what a long journey it's been. And this is the end….well the epilogue anyway. Which really means the end now. Thank you to everyone who took the time to review and comment, it's the only payment I get since paypal wont work here. No matter how hard I try. ::wink::

See you in the next NCIS fic which should make an appearance sometime before Thanksgiving….

* * *

Epilogue

Kate wobbled slightly and frowned; she was frustrated. Shifting her weight slightly, she regained her balance and looked up to see Tony looking at her with that smartass grin on his face.

"What?" she snapped and wobbled again, this time getting her balance back faster.

"Having some trouble?" he asked with amusement.

She gave him a look and poked out one crutch at his legs, making contact with his shin. "I'd like to see you do this."

"Doesn't look too hard," he said and grinned at her.

She merely huffed and straightened her back slightly; this had already gotten on her nerves and Kate had at least another two weeks of it. The ankle she thought had been merely bruised was actually fractured. It was mild, but still stuck her in a cast and on the crutches, where she was having trouble adjusting.

"Screw it," she muttered and pulled them away, sitting down on the edge of Elliot's desk. _Ahhhhh__ better.___

Gibbs was in Cragen's office, saying a quick goodbye and thanks for the cooperation. Elliot and Olivia had disappeared on another call, but were due back any moment. The three NCIS officers decided to stop by the station house before heading to the airport to say goodbye and thank the members of SVU for their help. Gibbs really wanted to give Olivia a huge hug and kiss for doing what she did, for saving Kate.

During the standoff in the kitchen, Olivia had slid by the group and went into the back of the hall, figuring with SWAT at the front of the apartment, if the suspect didn't give up, he would move that way. When she had seen Hamilton moving toward her, she snuck into the master bedroom – the only room that was dry walled in completely. Waiting like a cat. As it turned out, that had been the room where he made the bomb; broken drywall littered the floor along with a trigger and pipes.

But for now just his thanks would have to do, and the promise that if the NYPD ever needed anything, they would be happy to help.

Kate scrunched her face and inspected Elliot's desk, looking for a letter opener; she had a really bad itch -- in the cast of course. Finding nothing, she turned and looked at Olivia's desk, again nothing; unfortunately Tony had wandered off somewhere, and she couldn't send him looking.

Sighing out loud, her search was stopped by Elliot's voice.

"Itches, huh?" he asked and pulled up his own casted left arm.

"Oh yes. How do you deal with it?"

He tapped his head with one finger. "Mind over matter."

"If only he had a mind…." Olivia's light voice preceded her into the room.

He looked at her and said, "Funny lady."

She shrugged in amusement. "I try…."

Kate watched the two and smiled: perfect for each other. The itch was temporarily forgotten.

Gibbs chose that moment to materialize from Cragen's office and Tony reappeared from somewhere. A quick round of 'thank you's and 'good lucks' went around the room and in short order, the NCIS officers were collecting their bags, Tony carrying Kate's.

Elliot observed Gibbs watching Kate closely as she tottled out next to Tony, who was walking slowly with her and chatting amicably. He took a few big steps and clasped the other man by the shoulder, leaning in and speaking in low tones.

"Don't be stupid."

Gibbs stopped and pinned him with a glare. "I'm sorry?"

"Going with your feelings is never the wrong thing to do. Trust me," Elliot said and made a point to look at Olivia.

Gibbs nodded slowly and gave Elliot a knowing smile, message received.

Benson Apartment

8 pm

"Elliot, would you please stop that?"

He looked up at her guiltily and put the butter knife down.

"I know it itches -- what happened to mind over matter?"

He shrugged sheepishly. "Matter won."

She shook her head and resisted laughing at him; instead she turned to the coffee pot and pulled the carafe out, pouring two cups. Milk in his, milk and sugar in hers.

"Let's go…" she said and carried his cup into the living room where she placed it carefully on the table next to the couch. He followed her quietly, trying to ignore the increasingly itchy feeling.

She waited for him to settle onto the couch, sitting herself on his left side, and curling around the cast into his body.

"That was a long week," she muttered.

"Ohhh yeah," he agreed, reaching across his body and putting his right hand on her head, stroking her hair lightly.

She moved in closer and put her head on his broad chest, as he continued to run his fingers through her hair.

"How are you?" he asked.

She lifted her head and looked him straight in the eyes. "You know, I'm great. Better than I have been in a while. I slayed the dragon, even though it wasn't mine."

He nodded in understanding, moving his good hand down to her face, cupping her cheek lightly.

She smiled and leaned into him, kissing him lightly on the lips.

"You are a good man, Elliot Stabler," she said and moved toward him again, kissing him harder.

Pulling away, she slid her body lithely into his lap, straddling him.

"And you're about to get very lucky," she whispered.

Fin

Thank you…..


End file.
